First Edition features new original works by Northern California Jewish writers. Appearing the first issue of each month, it includes a poem and an excerpt from a novel or short story.
The Tell
by david shaddock
Psychologists and cops
CIA types, guys who won
the World Series of Poker
cranks with a theory
the blind guy with
his Braille Tarot
analysts with
proprietary algorithms
hunched over scholars
of the Talmud
teleological experts
Cray Computer armed
statisticians, none
can beat a coin flip
when it comes to knowing
the mind of God.
Has He decided?
Is He fair? Is He really
there at all? You reach
through the vineyard fence
to steal a single bunch —
Which? Perplexed
but the hand knows
this one’s perfect
so cool
with just the right hint
of sugar.
David Shaddock is a poet and psychotherapist with a private practice in Oakland. His poems have won the Ruah Magazine Power of Poetry Award for a collection of spiritual poems and the International Peace Poem Prize, among other honors. He is the author of “In This Place Where Something’s Missing Lives” and “Dreams Are Another Set of Muscles.”
Works may be submitted to fiction editor Ilana DeBare at [email protected] or poetry editor Joan Gelfand at [email protected]. Fiction excerpts may run up to 2,500 words, but only 800 words will appear in the print edition, with the rest appearing online. All prose and poetry published to date can be viewed at jweeklylit.wordpress.com.