Menachem Av

At this new moon,
we call you Av
father
and think of the father of our people
Avraham Avinu
Menachem Av, we call you
consoling father
a father like a familiar quilt
a father like a cup of cocoa.

Some of us had fathers like that
some of us had fathers who
destroyed temples
wreaked tragedies.

The sin of the spies.
The destruction of the Temple.
The First, and then
The Second.
Expulsions.
Genocides.

Menachem Av,
we need your fast and
we need your comfort.
We need your day when souls meet souls
when loves meet loves,
when we can curl up with our quilts
and our cocoa
and watch for the moon

together.