Saturday Night Fever

The first time I partook in the
“Sabbath”
the Hebrew felt performative
since I had not heard the term
“Sabbath” before that day

But my mother
Filipino and flamboyant
wanted to wear
white lace and look saintly

so she forced our attention
to the salt and the bread
(two things that had before
been so plain to me)
and sang the songs

Perhaps god can show
even if you’re not earnest
about the looking
because I found as I peeked
around that table
while my mother eyes-closed
prayed hard for us all
was that unattainable proof
of the god abound

By A.C. Dobell

Biography:

A.C. Dobell is a Filipina-American poet and visual artist living in Pittsburgh, PA. Her combination poetry and photography e-zine is published on Mercado Vicente. She is the co-director of Mused, an event that brings together artists of different mediums to inspire each other and connect over the creative process. She has work forthcoming in Eunoia Review. She works mainly in activism covering a broad range of environmental and social justice issues. She is related to the English poet, Sydney Thompson Dobell, a member of the Spasmodic school and friend of both Tennyson and Browning.