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Rochelle Ratner __________________________________________________________
It's just as she feared. She's been married for nearly forty years. Every night she and her husband cuddle then hold hands until they fall asleep. And every day she's woken up with a sense of dread. The Bible orders couples to be fruitful and multiply. Her mother, may she rest in peace, cursed her every day and still died without a grandchild. Neighbors and strangers asked rude questions, more than one friendship was sacrificed. But this huge stork tapping on their kitchen window by day and their bedroom window by night, making dives for their heads as they leave the house, tagging along and blocking out the sun when they go for walks, perching on their car and digging his claws in until the paint chips – this she never expected.
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Rochelle Ratner's books include two novels: Bobby's Girl (Coffee House Press, 1986) and The Lion's Share
(Coffee House Press, 1991) and sixteen poetry books, most recently Balancing Acts (Marsh Hawk Press, 2006)
and Beggars at the Wall (Ikon, 2006). An anthology she edited, Bearing Life: Women's Writings on Childlessness,
was published in January 2000 by The Feminist Press. A former Executive Editor for American Book Review,
she reviews regularly for Library Journal and was on the board of the National Book Critics Circle from 1994-2000. __________________________________________________________
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