A Literary Magazine in Support of the Jewish Community
Before October 7th
I took you on a crowded subway
to your first day of school.
On the way, you calculated
how many train stops, how many
years I had left to live.
Math & death, your special interests.
At the school entrance,
larger crowds, children tangled
like vines. You covered your ears
& cried. You hid your head
under my coat. You would not
say goodbye. Afterward
I sat under a tree with coffee
& a book, feeling
alive. Did you know
something then that I
didn’t? The leaves, each
a tiny quivering hand—
how we walk over them,
crush them with our feet.
Barbara Schwartz
Barbara Schwartz is the author of three books of poetry: a chapbook, Any Thriving Root (dancing girl press, 2017), the collaborative collection, Nothing But Light (Circling Rivers, 2022), and the hybrid work, What Survives is the Fire, forthcoming from Indolent Books in 2026, which was a finalist for the Barrow Street Book Prize, Alice James Award, and a semi-finalist for the Perugia Press Prize. Barbara has chronic myeloid leukemia and works as an advocate for children with disabilities.
