Mink Coat

My mother like many

of the woman at the Beth Israel

Synagogue Center

in Derby Connecticut

my mother had a mink coat.

Full length. Dark brown.

Some women had stoles.

She wore it on special occasions,

initials embroidered on the inside.

The mink coat lived

in a mink coat container.

When she died I asked Joanie

her longtime helper and friend

what she wanted as a souvenir

and she said the mink coat

to wear to the Baptist church.

She was ok about my mother’s initials.

I have sometimes wondered if

when Joanie died she gave it to her

friend Salina and if Sara Cohen’s mink coat

is now a regular at the mosque.