The Pin-up Girl and the Torah

It happened, sometime

Early in the shower,

Between that first

Preferred temperature –

And strength –

And the satin feel of my hair

Running through

My own fingers.

“What is my longing?”

I asked myself.

And my skin

Told my hands;

As my hands

Redeemed my skin,

Finger-tips tracing

MezuzahThe mezuzah is a small box containing parchment on which are written the words of the Shema (Judaism's most central prayer). It is affixed to the doorpost of a Jewish home in order to fulfill the commandment to "inscribe [the words of God] upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates." pendant,

“There is poetry here.”

Thank you,

Pin-up girl

And TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes "Torah" is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general.,

Age

And Menopause,

And the recent death 

Of my mother,

For chaperoning me

To the Sanctuary of Truth;

Holy, liminal realm of

Erotic shared space.

Here is the landscape:

ShekhinahThe feminine name of God, expounded upon in the rabbinic era and then by the Kabbalists in extensive literature on the feminine attributes of the divine. and Malkhut,

Intermingling.

My soul

Animates

My body.

And I am exactly

What I need.