Ode to a Crystal Dreidel
Throughout the year,
you wait
in the curio cabinet—
sunlight’s fingers
grab at you
through the window
every afternoon.
We adore you
from behind glass doors,
your blue viscera
held tight like leaves
trapped in ice.
But today,
my son watches
you in wonder
like a great miracle.
You spin
from delicate fingers,
maple seed in the game.
How you land
determines win or loss
instead of anchor
to become life.
O how your confetti glows,
fills the room
as the chandelier
catches, presents us
with what you are
meant to be,
with what you have
waited all year
to become.
*
Liz Marlow is the author of They Become Stars (Slapering Hol Press 2020) and The Ground Never Lets Go, forthcoming from Moon Tide Press in 2026. Additionally, her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Best Small Fictions, The Greensboro Review, The Idaho Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She is the editor-in-chief of Minyan Magazine.
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