Clean laundry
bleached
dried
piled everywhere.
We shake out silently
a shirt
a sock
underwear.
Laid out nicely
smooth and
square
nimble hands
side by side.
The pile is gone.
Between us grows
a tidy
clean
cold
divide.
From Step by Step: An Anthology of Contemporary Yiddish Poetry, forthcoming in 2009 from Quodlibet. By arrangement with the authors. Translations copyright 2008 by Zachary Sholem Berger. All rights reserved.
