10.07.05 - 3:08 p.m.

last night while trying to choose a suitable handbag i
found the beige chanel clutch willed to me by neil's
grandmother and, inside, the kippah i wore
to her funeral -- the kippah diane crocheted for me
as a welcome to the family when i was thirteen.
you'll need a kippah and a tallit, she said,
if you're ever going to be a rabbi's wife. this morning
with my husband in the bathroom i reached under the mattress to find
my tallit; galilee silk; an appliqued tree, and wondered if
she could feel me fingering the fringe, if
she awoke to a noise like cracking the spine
of a book that hasn't been opened since childhood.