05/11/2022 23:21:32 ¶ ●

an illustration of a fat, feathered, bird-clawed & horned, queer & trans Jewish demon, seated above Yiddish text reading "feygele." the figure is chained by the wrists but appears arrogant & inviting.

a poem with an illustration of bird with a person's head & crown of stars. the title (in Hebrew) is "sheyd

FEYGELE, 2020.

a sheyd (Jewish demon) inspired by two major stylistic influences, Leonard Baskin & Aubrey Beardsley, and also by the #AugustAdiPOSE & #FatArt hashtags on Twitter. the title/text “feygele” is a Yiddish word meaning “little bird” often used as pejorative slang for a queer person – here also playing off the figure’s size & the bird-like attributes of sheydim in folklore. a queer/trans fat Jewish aspiration!

paired with the poem “sheyd” from my chapbook:

commanded, as you are, to love the stranger,

must you not also be a refuge

to the strangest who reside among you?

call us in from the corners, we little birds

who sing in unfamiliar tongues: our cries

also reach heaven.

though our prayers take different forms

we too are people of the book;

we too keep our covenants, in the

twilight places where we make our homes.

even as you safeguard yourselves fully against us,

so do you imprison a portion of the soul we share—

let there be spaces in your dwellings and your teachings

for us to come and go in peace.

we bring with us both the fear and the joy you have forgotten:

in the dust, in the ashes of your empires

shall you see our footprints.