By Luca Bernstein

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This poem is about my experience growing up being forced to be Kosher.

CRAB- maryland/ our annual family holidays which we used to have when we were still a family/ still invited/ crab/ one of my favorite things in the world which I love more than anything/ instead of eating I had to watch the eating/ by my cousins/ who would try and sneak me bites/ of crab under the table.

Deut. 14:10 “And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall not eat; it is unclean unto you.”

BACON- carlos/  happy family/ happy Sunday breakfasts/ unfamiliar happy Sunday family breakfasts/ almost as foreign as the bacon to me/ ate a pack not knowing you're not supposed to eat the entire pack/ high levels of cholesterol didn't bother me.

Lev. 11:4 “Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only part the hoof. ”

OYSTERS- oyster happy hour/ an hour in which I knew mom and I would be happy/ pro oyster eaters don’t require the red sauce/ but my mom was just trying to improve her health/ at 6 years old/ I would gulp them down/ a dollar each/ although they meant much more to me.

Deut. 14:10 “And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall not eat; it is unclean unto you.”

MARSHMALLOWS- filled the cups of my friends hot chocolates/ at my birthday party/ a bowl filled with mini marshmallows/ rested on the table/ mini marshmallow that weren’t meant for mini me/ so instead/  snuck to me by mom in the bathroom at my own birthday party. 

Deut. 14:8  “Because he parteth the hoof but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you; of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch.” 

SAN PANINO CHICKEN SANDWICH- the unofficial after school lunch of my elementary school/ my honesty would make my nanny a liar/ in trouble/San Pa knee ohh, how do I pronounce it?/ smelt on me by stepmom/ smelt on me the way someone smells a recovering alcoholic who hasn’t recovered from alcohol/ all for a San Pa Knee ohh chicken sandwich/ which I didn't know I had to sneak/ which resulted in me learning about responsibility.  

Lev. 7:26 “Moreover you shall eat no blood whatsoever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwellings. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.”


She smelled something “not kosher” on me
And told my father, Luca smells like a chicken sandwich.

The Forbidden fruits of God/ the forbidden fruits he forbid from me/ forbidding me/ 
prohibiting me/ from living out my childhood dreams/ instead of sneaking sweets/ I would sneak foods I knew/ I shouldn’t/ couldn’t eat/ the rules which god put on me/ cause god said/ God/ said and spoke/ unlike me/ whose voice was too afraid to say anything of reality/ so instead I spoke through food/ Bacon's Rebellion/ Bacon was my rebellion/against/
the rules which god tried to put on me. 

Process

One day when I was facing writers block I decided to write a poem about two topics I am very familiar with, my childhood and food. I compiled a list of all my favorite foods and memories I had with them growing up. I noticed most of them were foods that were meant to be forbidden to me, and so although the rules were placed on me by my Dad, they originated from The Torah and from God. The rules never made sense to me though, and they still don’t, so I researched why the rules exist and for each memory I have I paired it up with a specific rule.