Matzoh
Marge Piercy's life as a poet and novelist has been informed by her political activism, her feminism and her Judaism. Her work—which includes fifteen books of poetry, sixteen novels and the memoir Sleeping with Cats—is marked by humanity and empathy, focusing frequently on the disenfranchised and the alienated in society.
Institution: Sylvia Edwards, Longview Community College
Matzoh
Flat you are as a door mat
and as homely.
No crust, no glaze, you lack
a cosmetic glow.
You break with a snap.
You are dry as a twig
split from an oak
in midwinter.
You are bumpy as a mud basin
in a drought.
Square as a slab of pavement,
you have no inside
to hide raisins or seeds.
You are pale as the full moon
pocked with craters.
What we see is what we get,
honest, plain, dry
shining with nostalgia
as if baked with light
instead of heat.
The bread of flight and haste
in the mouth you
promise, home.
© Marge Piercy, from What are Big Girls Made Of?
