Untitled Poem
Untitled Poem
By Sophie Skoke
I’m so tired, I’m feeling the energy ooze out of my body
I’m so tired of thinking about this
but I’m learning too
I’m learning to not hide it
I’m understanding that my ties are both
made visible and invisible
My heritage is mine
but when it’s snatched from my arms
by a twisting, encroaching string of words
I’m stripped
and
I’m tired
My religion is me, but here’s the thing
Only I get to say when it’s not
When I can profess myself a Jew
I feel pride
and in those moments, I’m free for the
few seconds before it crumbles at my feet
stolen from my stance, my hopeful face
My people
In those moments, I wait for the tiredness to takeover
Only recently, I am feeling the tiredness
stay within me for shorter periods of time
I have the voices of my parents, my sister, my grandmother, my friends,
My people
They help me build myself up again and again
These days, when I profess myself a Jew
Though my voice does waver
I feel the quake of a new hope overtaking me
It rushes through the bitterness
I am allowed to profess my tiredness
My new hope
To curl back against the onslaught of words,
so effortlessly said, but biting all the same
To stand straighter
To look as though I know something they do not
I am who I am, but I am also a Jew.
Sophie Skoke is a Kindergarten teacher at St. Malachy School. Sophie joined the Philadelphia Writing Project in 2016 attending the Invitational Summer Institute.