The Halvah
My teeth sink into the soft bar,
mealy and dry as
The Sinai sands.
It recedes like manna at noon,
leaving my mouth coated
with memories of a
long-distant desert journey
by a people freed from Pharaoh.
“It’s halvah,” he said.
Candy made of crushed
sesame and sugar, temptingly
marbled with cocoa powder.
I am trespassing with each bite
further into community
bound together by this crushing,
this pressing into bricks
of seeds.
(© 2012 Connie S. Tettenborn)
Note: This first appeared in The Deronda Review, Vol. IV, No. 2