Page 72 - WTP Vol. XI #3
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briaN C. billiNGS
Kosher Bacon
Born in a flask, I sprout in red solution. My sister? A duck incubating to my right. My brother? A little bull now gone to mix
with yeast and soy, a poster boy for the guiltless grill.
They call me clean—scraped from a sinless slaughter, saved from the gristle and the bristle for the dish and the centrifuge. Awhirl with debate, my fate baffles the kashrut world.
The Treif Banquet offended
rabbis by the tribe. They left
clams closed, frogs unforked,
crabs and shrimp locked in cocktails when they walked. They denied. They rebuked. They split by law.
I might seal that breach. Illicit
cannot claim my innovated flesh.
Pareve, neither meat nor milk,
perhaps rash, I can bind at people’s plates, remind for the bima that new food can heal sour tongues in double-dealing days
and make a second helping messianic.
Billings is a professor of English and drama at Texas A&M University- Texarkana, where he also serves as the editor-in-chief for Aquila Review. His work has appeared in Antietam Review, Ancient Paths, Argestes, The Bluebird Word, Confrontation, Evening Street Review, and Rushing Thru the Dark.
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