“Rimon” by Annette Greenberg

Rimon

When I was six I asked you why
We eat such difficult fruit.
Such a mess and so little flavor for it.
You said she paints a picture of our gifts,
What tasks we fulfill to be close to G-d.

If I needed to see the picture
Up close, with tiny eyes
I could sit there and count
At the table, every seed
Before the weekday’s greed
Until six-thirteen, the sun comes up
And my small fingernails bleed.
I never checked, I just believed.

I should have asked you why again.
I long for eyes still small enough to ask that.

Annette Greenberg

Annette Greenberg is a first-year student at Stern College for Women. She believes that poetry can renew and transform a person's self-image and relationships, and it has provided immense comfort and strength to her since childhood. Her work has previously been published in JGirls+ Magazine, as well as in The Maccabee Review, the literary magazine of Yeshiva University.

Headshot: Annette Greenberg

Photo Credit: Staff