We are lucky enough to have a house in upstate New York, wild mountains of unfathomable beauty, where I teach writing every summer at the Cairo Public Library. Price Chopper supermarket is one of the places everyone goes. There we often meet people. Many are amazing.

We ran into Shmulik
he’s Sid now
Gay Hasid
lived in Munsey,
Safad, then Jerusalem
now Catskill New York
he was buying sale
Bounty Paper Towels
at Price Chopper
for his mother. Two
for the price of one. Sid said
(he seems more like Shmulik)
Sid said he is finally he
means it in love. They met
online and then onbody.
Jim lives in a small town
In Mississippi. 20 years
younger but Hasidim, said Sid,
don’t mind age differences.
Jim studies cosmetology.
Jim and Sid both admire
Big Hair. Invite me for tea
Sid said. I’ll tell you how
I know for sure that this
Is Real Love.

Author’s Note: Some years ago when we were both teaching at Parsons School of Design, Matthew Septimus and I decided to collaborate. Our intention was to capture holy people and holy places, all that transcended the ordinary, with his pictures and my words. Over the years we began to consider our project as a kind of prayer, how prayers would be if they were pictures and poems. This is one of an eight-part series titled Postcards for Hanukkah.