"ONLY TO LOOK UPON THEM"
By Neil Fleischmann

Ripping the tinfoil
raising the dining room shade
setting out his medium size metal menorah
in the center of two small ones belonging to his sons
lighting the bottoms of the standard issue colored candles
plucked out of the flimsy box with the blessings on the back
gluing each warm wax base into the hole of its holder
then saying the brachot and getting the mitzvah done

Singing Maoz Tzur
religiously over eight nights
for forty years, from the corner seat of the couch
mispronouncing certain words, leaving out the last stanza
calling me to share the moment, if I wasn't there beside him.
And there were latkas, sometimes, particularly back in my youth.
And mom was in the kitchen, not at the lighting, not on the couch.

And I just saw dad, and also mom, in the two candles that I lit tonight.