Małgorzata

From a Greek source--margaron--meaning "pearl." Margarita in Latin, then Marguerite (Old French). Saint's name day--the 18th of January--along with Bogumił, Jaropełk, Krystyna, Liberata, Piotr,and Pryska... But here as a girl scout trio, Warszawianki, where Levis become a ballroom gown, the only smidgen of the 18th century being perhaps the unintended gracefulness of their poses--Ovid redone after a waxy dressmaker's guide--szablon...

Van Gulik

In Fresno, it is 1923, and your shy father
Has picked up a Chinese fan abandoned
Among the corsages crushed into the dance floor.
On it, a man with scrolls is crossing a rope bridge
Over gradually whitening water.
If you look closely you can see brush strokes intended
To be trout.
You can see that the whole scene
Is centuries older
Than the hotel, or Fresno in the hard glare of morning.
And the girl
Who used this fan to cover her mouth
Or her breasts under the cool brilliance
Of chandeliers
Is gone on a train sliding along tracks that are
Pitted with rust.

Larry Levis, from "Lost Fan, Hotel Californian, Fresno, 1923"
(lines 1-16)

Reb Ahron

Hodu l'hashem ki tov, ki l'olam chasdo... Naugehide banquette, whispy beard, the volume of Likutei Torah close at hand, two narrow columns on heavy white page... Velvet yarmulkah and the freckles of a young man, now magnified by the lenses of his horn-rimmed spectacles. Spectacle--the quiet afternoons, learning in chevrusa, with a like-minded soul, warm breeze through the high Yerushalmi windows, late cup of tea. The very overlapping...

This morning, even before dawn--the lulav and esrog...