Written by Julie R. Enszer. Julie, a first-time Jewrotica writer, is the author of Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2010) and Sisterhood, a chapbook (Seven Kitchens Press, 2010), and editor of Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2011).
Milk and Honey was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. Her second full-length collection of poetry, Sisterhood, will be published by Sibling Rivalry Press in late fall 2013. She has her MFA and PhD from the University of Maryland. She is a regular book reviewer for the Lambda Book Report and Calyx. You can read more of her work at www.JulieREnszer.com.
WIGGER
When I was a child, another told me
my lips were too big to be white;
she said, There is something in your past.
She was ominous; I, mystified.
They’re not white, they’re pink!
She replied, It happened all the time,
you know, though I didn’t. Other kids
are talking, but, she reassured me,
I don’t care. I was only eleven or twelve
just beginning to understand
the expressions of race.
Twenty-five years later,
my lover and I look at a photograph
of her grandmother—an African-American,
though she called herself Negro.
My wife marvels at how much
she looks like my grandmother
who has always been white.
It doesn’t unsettle me,
this racial convergence;
maybe my grandmother
was a race-traitor, too.
I lack the rhythm for hip-hop,
the soul for the blues,
the intellect for jazz. Being white,
in some circles, a cultural deficit,
so my wife generously calls me
“black by injection,” which is
impossible; we can’t transmutate
race, or even cross between
white and black, except when we do:
when we walk among different worlds,
speaking in foreign tongues
like when I bop and bounce
outside the beat,
move my body to music
with no regard for rhythm,
when I dance inappropriately.
My father tells my wife,
She’s not just white, you know.
He harkens back to the hidden
family heritage—Cherokee or Potawatomi.
My wife just nods and smiles.
She has seen my pink nipples.
She knows black when she sees it.
One of my best friends is Indian;
she made me crave the curry.
Now I’m a maven; I know all the joints
around the city. She wanted to go to
the temple in India, to fulfill a Hindu
tradition and make a sacrifice of her hair.
We read how shorn hair is sold
in the west for wigs, expensive ones,
often worn by Orthodox Jews
commanded in marriage to cover their hair.
I wonder, what circumstances
of our births would have to change
for her to be shaven in India,
for me to be wearing a wig from her hair?
If I were Orthodox, I’m sure
I’d spend most of my days
wearing a snood—tightly-knit
by my own hand. Simple.
A different religious practice
would not change my orientation.
I can see me in a snood,
except I would reject the premise
of modestly; I’d wear it only
for my own comfort, to contain
my unwashed mane, and let’s be honest:
it is not uncovered hair that
would eject me from Orthodoxy.
There is no injecting in lesbian sex;
no spontaneous or controlled eruptions
of fluid deposited near the cervix;
certainly there are fluids and yes
they erupt—the spittle that escapes
the lip during conversation, the pussy
juice that seeps onto the bed
even the ejaculate that sprays
on nipples and stomach
and pubic mons—but still I say no.
No injection, despite penetration
and the politics of intercourse
and outercourse, there is no
lesbian injection making me black.
The people behind Jewrotica are quite quality! I have confidence that any project these folks take on will be equally quality.
Learning about sex and what’s right and wrong when it comes to sex from a Biblical standpoint was an eye opening experience. I completely enjoyed it and think something like this could be a very cool thing to bring to even high school aged Jewish youth groups.
While many people fear the “sex talk,” Jewrotica offers an opportunity for writers and audiences to speak about sexuality in a open and safe space. When I attended a Jewrotica reading, I heard stories that reminded me that love takes many forms, and that expressing it is a vital part of who we are as a people.
I’m so glad that Jewrotica is represented here at Jewlicious! It’s bringing voices that need to be heard in the Jewish discussion and Jewish climate environment.
Bedside Reading with Jewrotica was funny, sexy, and hot all at once. The readings were honest about all kinds of sexuality, but the highlight of the evening was definitely the confessions, written by audience participants. Nobody knew who wrote them, and most were tell-alls that would make your bubbe blush. Unless your bubbe was very, very cool. Then maybe she’d make YOU blush!
Jewrotica is awesome. It expands the mind and for people who were raised with narrow views on sexuality. Whether you are Jewish or not, or in different sects of Judaism like Orthodox, Conservative or Reform, no matter what your background or where you’re from, Jewrotica gets you to see Judaism and how it relates to sexuality in new ways. I really appreciate Ayo being here and helping us learn different ways to connect with our sexuality.
Jewrotica was everything I had dreamed of and more: sexy attendees, tantalizing confessions, and well-written literature to boot! More importantly, it empowers us Jews to reach inside and own our sexy selves and heritage!
I’m Heshy Fried from Frum Satire and I am very, very frum. And I completely support Jewrotica – it’s doing a service to the frum community. We need some sort of kosher sexual education. Jewrotica even has a system that allows frum filters to filter out certain things to make it PG for us. It’s mamish Torah. It’s like The Little Midrash Says for sex.
At Jewrotica’s Evening of Bedside Readings, students declaimed monologues on sexual encounters that had a Jewish twist. At Columbia/Barnard Hillel, the speakers pushed their own boundaries by performing a range of explicit narratives that challenged how the audience thought of the relationship to Judaism and sex. During the speakers’ preparation, the arguments about which narratives would be appropriate forced students to take a stand and voice their opinion on their own beliefs about Judaism an…
I love the inclusiveness – there is something for everyone, in and out of the Jewish community.
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