The ketubah, a Jewish marriage contract that dates back to Talmudic times, is an object of ritual beauty. For many couples, it represents the promise and obligations of a shared life, even as it provides for the contingency of divorce. But what does it become when that shared life is over? Jason Schneidermanâs âKetubahâ weds two partial texts to create something whole out of estrangement itself.âJody Bolz, Poetry Editor
KETUBAH
I canât remember
what ours said
on this day of joy
and celebration
though Iâm the one
who picked it out
according to the law
of Moses and Israel
its greens and reds
inspired by Rothko
in the month of _
in the year of _
a modern touch
in our Jewish home
measured since
the creation of the world
that now is gone
or is yours without me
I offer two hundred zuzim
and even the shirt off my back
we married on the fourth day
it was legal for two men
I was brought from
my fatherâs house
to marry in this country
to live with you
as husband and husband
Iâm glad you kept it
this ancient text
rewritten for us
not an agreement
without consideration
or a mere formula
of a document but
something to prove
how much we loved.
Jason Schneiderman is the author of four books of poetryâmost recently, Hold Me Tightâand editor of the Oxford University Press anthology Queer: A Reader for Writers.
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