rachel mennies
Frank Lloyd Wright had built most of his legacy, and it was good—Fallingwater tumbled over itself in Pittsburgh; the Guggenheim perched on the Upper East Side. Then the Lord appeared to him as he lay in bed one night. The Lord said unto Wright: Bring your pens and your drafting-paper to Philadelphia, where you shall build a new house of worship for the Jews. Wright, Midwest Baptist minister’s son, sat up straight in bed. The Jews? he asked, then pointed a finger at the ceiling. What do you think my art can bring to the Jews? The Lord said unto Wright: Between you and me: I’ve been a bad father lately. And thus Beth Sholom, mountain of glass, giant winged ark, came to land on Old York Road, the last building Wright designed before his death: forever stuck in self-reflection, the panes making walls and roof of sky.
iPOEM
The Creation of Temple Beth Sholom
Rachel Mennies is the author of the chapbook No Silence in the Fields (Blue Hour Press, 2012). Recent poems of hers have appeared in Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, Hayden's Ferry Review, Mid-American Review, and elsewhere, and have been reprinted at Poetry Daily. She currently teaches in the First-Year Writing Program at Carnegie Mellon University.