Enough (Dayenu)

FROM APRIL 2020

If by the end you emerge

Body like dough, pliant for transformation,

Let the softness remind you how you nurtured yourself

Found pleasure in your palette

When the world seemed scary.

If the peach fuzz above your lip is long enough to tickle the crisp edges of a brownie

As you indulge in chocolate comfort you can control within your kitchen,

Watch as it protects your skin

Marvel at your innately human superpower to protect your insides

From the pathogens that destroy us through the same entrance.

If your unfiled nails snag on the open weave of the crocheted sweater forced into a warmer season than you planned for its debut, 

forced over a size medium of last season’s small,

You’ll polish them later, like the pint of peppermint ice cream of the changing weather, crisp and sweet like the air your lungs ached for but only your tongue could taste.

If your hair grazes your breasts like you’ve grazed the kitchen

Notches longer than the shoulder-length pleats you prepared for the spring,

Braid it like the challah you kneaded when you needed to feel

Connection to the before, the enduring, and the weekly routine.

If by the end of this we emerge

Doughier, softer, human, alive.

The world will be sweeter, like the pastries we baked when we couldn’t ask our neighbors for a cup of sugar.

Rounder,

We are more whole.

Fuller,

We have more to give.