Miriam in India
- Miriam in India
Miriam, age five,Born in Cambridge, raisedIn the high hills of JerusalemSees poverty for the first time in Hyderabad;Her fine, silk-lashed eyes don't miss a thing.At first she laughed and aped the beggarsDelighted, thinking they were clownsWho raised great cries for her as she walked by.I had to shame her into proprietyShow her how one must hurry past sedate, straight-faced giving away nothing.Shocked into silenceShe goes on watching,Her rich eyes darken [End Page 104] Here in the blazing circus of the marketplace.Now she begins to ply us with crowds of questionsWe cannot possibly answer all of them -"Why do some people have broken fingers?Would mine become like that if I touch them?Did something happen to make their arms so thin?Do they like living in those muddy huts?Can they move to new houses if they want to?What if a poor person had a rich friend?What would happen if they did, just if?"Each question creeps up on you, unexpected.I toss her a few words of reassurance, half truths, excuses, one or two stray paisas of concern
But she is never satisfied. [End Page 105]
Wendy Dickstein is a writer and poet who was born in Connecticut, grew up in Australia, and has lived in India and England before settling in Jerusalem twenty years ago. She has published poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction in the United States, Australia, Israel and in cyberspace and is working on a memoir project with two other feminist Jewish women. Wendy can be reached at wendy.dickstein@gmail.com.
