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Rebekah's Ultrasound

From the March 2020 Print Edition

Jacob and Esau struggled in the womb right from the start. Rebekah’s ultrasound, quite early on, revealed the embryos: yin and yang, two fat big-headed commas grappled together head to toe;Rebekah only twenty weeks along,they were duking it out in there already. The sonogram was the usual fuzzy . . . . Continue Reading »

Common Cause

From the May 2019 Print Edition

When Solomon was born, birds came soaring, waddling, swimming, flapping around the air.They cheeped and honked to celebrate the day; a few chipped in to give him a layette—eiderdown, eggs, and less-appetizing things. Ad hoc solidarity to honorDavid’s gilt- and purple-bundled heir:pterosaur, . . . . Continue Reading »

Tough

From the January 2011 Print Edition

The Spartan boy who steals a fox endures with fortitude the roiling mound scratching at his proud breast under his tunic, claws hooked in his skin: he keeps its V-jaws veiled beneath an impassive mien. The shoppers chatter past without a clue while it thrashes and tears into his flesh in panic. He . . . . Continue Reading »

The Magdalenes

From the April 2008 Print Edition

Magdala on the Via Maris hosted the caravans; Egyptian traffic”glass in ingots, ivory, lapis, apricots, papyrus, ostrich-feather fans; the Magdalenes laid out their fish for salting near the inns; behind the fly-specked drying racks day and night the willing women catered to the . . . . Continue Reading »

Poetry(March 2003)

From the March 2003 Print Edition

Imagine the way those horses came plunging and foaming like a race undammed, and how the hot hooves crashing scoured down the hills of Thrace. Fed by an unheard“of hunger” roaring white“eyed from their source, they ate the mountain like a river ravening out a watercourse. He made them stand, . . . . Continue Reading »

Jerusalem Artichoke

From the January 2002 Print Edition

It’s not , though: Anyone can tell you this is absolutely not an artichoke. And the Jerusalem that it professes? Some Italian costermonger spoke about the sunflower”the English heard not girasole but Jerusalem ” and, naming these vile tubers, they conferred an accidental dignity . . . . Continue Reading »