~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of December 2025 ~
Tag: Liz Marlow
Ode to a Crystal Dreidel by Liz Marlow
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.
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of September 2024 ~
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of September 2024 ~
How I Lost My First Magen David by Liz Marlow
How I Lost My First Magen David
It had been my Bubbe’s,
about the size of the tip
of my pinky, nothing
to notice except that it
was my sun—mornings,
it could guide me home.
Though on birthdays,
friends had given me glass
bead or plastic charm necklaces
and bracelets, this was too dainty
to be costume. Its chain
had been free
with a golden heart locket—
a throwaway placeholder
in the gray felt jewelry store box—
meant to be changed out
for something fancier, thicker.
My mom didn’t think this star
pendant needed a sturdy chain—
after all, thicker gold chains cost more—
I was just a child. As if belief
were enough to keep the chain
from breaking, during swim practice
at the JCC, diving into the pool,
engulfed in splash, it would float
to bump my chin, nudging,
הנני—here I am.
*
Liz Marlow is the author of They Become Stars (Slapering Hol Press 2020). 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 and a coeditor of Slapering Hol Press.