Photo by Kerri Shaver on Unsplash
Lot’s wife died nameless for being unmale. A young white man killed eight last week to save himself from temptation. Seven were women: Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan, Soon Chung Park, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun, and Paul Andre Michels.
We shopped today
at the Pious Bookshop,
bought Seder plates for the kids
packed in a fresh pizza box
with second-hand bubble wrap --
Passover is this weekend
They had coffee mugs and fridge magnets
skull caps with slogans --
We are stronger together and
No place for hate
As if it was this morning
I remembered passing security
for the funeral, the line blocks long
down Darlington Road
eleven Unorthodox
killed at the Tree of Life
I longed for them, the Pious
to be with us together
down Darlington Road
and at the cemetery later,
their beards, black coats and tzitzit
but no one was there
as if you’re not Orthodox
you’re not a Jew
as if it matters
that the murdered are
Don Krieger is a biomedical researcher whose focus is the electric activity within the brain. He is author of the hybrid collection, "Discovery," a 2020 Pushcart nominee, and a 2020 Creative Nonfiction Foundation Science-as-Story Fellow. His work has appeared in American Journal of Nursing, Neurology, Seneca Review, The Asahi Shimbun, The Blue Nib, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and others, and has been translated into Farsi and Greek.