Boyfriend's Bed by Kathleen Fellows

On summer nights I sleep under covers

in my queen sized bed I share with him.

My bed is in deep need of a headboard

and complains every time I move around.

The bed is from my boyfriend’s childhood,

which is why I think it doesn’t like me,

because I am the new stray he brought home

but we aren’t in its original house

so it should show a little gratitude

we didn’t replace it with something new.

When we moved, we kept most of our old things.

All of our apartments since have been jammed,

full of belongings we can some times use

and a couple items we always need.

Every time we’ve moved, it’s been by ourselves.

No one has helped us or rented with us

and no one plans to when it is brought up.

I’m not sure what’s wrong with the two of us.

I wonder if we ruined each other

in some way to which we’re ignorant of

and now no one wants to deal with us two.

In the day we walk around together,

aware of social rules everyone wants.

We disagree on religion a bit

like some sort of dissent plurality

since he is pagan and I atheist

but they aren’t different enough to argue,

which is just what’s needed to live together,

fighting about all the simple aspects

of us both being first world residents.

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A Letter of Recommendation by Yehuda Amichai 1924–2000

Translated By Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell

On summer nights I sleep naked

in Jerusalem. My bed

stands on the brink of a deep valley

without rolling down into it.

In the daytime I walk around with the Ten

Commandments on my lips

like an old tune someone hums to himself.

Oh touch me, touch me, good woman!

That’s not a scar you feel under my shirt, that’s

a letter of recommendation, folded up tight,

from my father:

“All the same, he’s a good boy, and full of love.”

I remember my father waking me for early prayers.

He would do it by gently stroking my forehead, not

by tearing away the blanket.

Since then I love him even more.

And as his reward, may he be wakened

gently and with love

on the Day of the Resurrection.