*After a Photograph by Frederic Brenner
Six mother-daughter dyads
in long, black dresses
paired points of light
smiling luminously
looking back on a past
that should have never happened
looking forward to a future
that may never happen
and suddenly I am crying
here in Brooklyn
thinking to myself:
may these daughters not be artists, writers, dancers,
may they not want to create anything from themselves but children
may their lives, their legacies be preserved
beyond this single photograph
standing at six points
bathed in yellow-white light.
–julie r. enszer
*Jewish Lesbian Daughters of Holocaust Survivors with Their Mothers, NYC, 1994