Midrash

^{Mordekhai fed and sustained. Really?! Indeed, Rabbi Yudan said, “One time, he went repeatedly to all the wet-nurses but could not find one for Esther at this moment, and so he nursed her himself.” Rabbi Berakhiah and Rabbi Abbahu [said] in Rabbi El’azar’s name, “Milk came to him and he would nurse her.” —“Bereshit Rabbah”}

The milk of a body like mine,
first seen and named as male,
budding against expectation,
fed and sustained the small girl-body
of Esther, whose story
feeds and sustains.

When I was a child,
our rabbi became a queen
flaming through the Purim spiel
in a tacky harem costume,
a mockery of the terrors
passed down in our blood.

I offer this blessing to you,
reader, sibling, sister. The milk
of a male may feed and sustain.
This is not a question, for me,
of belief. The body is holy
and is made holy in its changing.