Alicia Jo Rabins
Passenger

 

seed-lined ark 

 

mother papaya

 

whale belly

 

my little Jonah 

 

dear passenger

 

like an airplane 

 

I carry you

 

to be a woman 

 

is to be a wall
 
with a hole
 
to be a human
 
a hole with walls

 

even the rain 

 

tastes red to you
 
the strawberries

 

are over but the sun

 

keeps shedding

 

my blood doubles

 

to keep you 

 

aloft

 

 

 

Found In Volume 46, No. 04
Read Issue
  • ajr author corrugated2
Alicia Jo Rabins
About the Author

Alicia Jo Rabins won the 2015 APR/Honickman First Book Prize for her collection Divinity School. She is also a composer, musician, and Torah scholar. Alicia’s poems appear in Ploughshares,  6x6, The Boston Review, and elsewhere.  She teaches ancient Jewish texts to children and adults and performs internationally as a violinist and singer.  Alicia lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, daughter, and son.