Fall 2026

by Judith Meyerowitz

Yellow and black fallout sign in basement-gimme shelter
We squeeze our bodies under the desk seat.
We laugh tensely as we fit our tushies and feet- helter-skelter.

The Civil Defense film “Duck and Cover”
features “Bert the Turtle”,
who has a built-in shelter.

We are not supposed to face the windows.
The glass could shatter.
They did not tell us we will melt- helt•er-skelter

Will I be safe from the BOMB?
The President and his friends
have an underground shelter.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, I read Hiroshima
Their skin comes off their hands like gloves
Helter-Skelter

Gunfire! Students in place,
“And naught of earth shall harm me.”
For in the arms of God, I shelter
Helter-skelter.

by Judith Meyerowitz

We inhabited the same space.
Her blood flowed in me.
Her genes
Her thoughts

I lay attached to her by wires,
her emotional currents coursing through me.
I emerged formed- I sat, I crawled, I walked.
Invisible wires did not let me go far.
I was her creature, her experiment.
I looked in the mirror and
on my face saw her image,
The Creator

Helpless, I waited to awake to more developed human characteristics,
to have an independent self
My contact with the outside was limited.
I was afraid
as if the wires were still attached.

Through the wires I could also feel her pain, helplessness.
How do you express anger at fragility
You write- humorous poisonous pen letters when very young, thoughtful insightful words when older.

Frankenstein’s monster seemed human
despite the bolts in his neck and
stitches in his head,
a gentle monster who liked flowers.
Were we meant to feel for him
or were we he?

So many human experiments seem to go wrong.
The Creator no stronger, wiser than the monster