Lilith Tries Online Dating

Abstract

Lilith Tries Online Dating Lynn Levin (bio) Well past the first blush of feminine decline—centuries past, in fact—yet looking only sixty-tworetired from the night shiftand thirsting for comfort, consolation:Lilith considers the possibility of long-term companionship.She yearns to be half of an old coupleto live with a man tolerating his habitswith an annoyance close to affectiontrusting that he will endure herwith similar warmth. Incessant as the ocean waves this need laps at her feet. For pity's sakeher latest crop of girlfriends has died or gone to Florida.The road ahead blurs. Arthritis rusts her gears.Worst of all, those pratfalls into the pool of forgetfulness—and the attempts to laugh them off. So, Lilith does what other single women do:she signs up with an online dating service,a Jewish one. An odd choice for oneto whom the tradition has been cruelmaligning her as the witch of midnight sex.But the great chain of Jewish beingmeans something to Lilith. She is stubbornthat way, even though she knows that thereare many fine gentiles out thereand everyone is mixing nowadays. [End Page 13] She uploads a fairly recent photolists herself as divorced, no childrenlies about her age, posts a profile that makesno mention of her lusty pastno clue that her fountain has run dry.Soon, the flirts, the looks, the messagespour in. Hope begins to peck its wayout of its tough shell. She feels like a woman again. And this is how it unfolds.First date, coffee: during which the fellowgoes on about himself.Second date, pizza: here various warning lightsflash on the get-to-know-you dashboardbut these Lilith chooses to ignore.Third date, dinner: following which the guyrequests sex or a timeline for same."I'm a guy," Steve or Jeff says, his denimbumping up against her. But as soon as she tellsSteve or Jeff that she doesn't want to rushit's goodbye and good luck. Lilith knows that a man's desire surges but his days are few.She, on the other hand, will live for generations.She prays (not really believing in divine intervention)that, in a generation to come, a manmight invite her for a third date, demanding nothing.A fourth date, demanding nothing.A fifth, requesting the same nothing.Finally, out of gratitude and relief and a sense of being understoodshe will fall into his arms.He will comfort and console heras she will comfort and console him.And then, perhaps, the fountain play againin the desert of all those years. [End Page 14] Lynn Levin Lynn Levin is adjunct associate professor of English at Drexel University, where she has received the Adjunct Award for Teaching Excellence. A poet, writer, and translator, she is the author of eight books, among them the poetry collections The Minor Virtues (Ragged Sky, 2020), Miss Plastique (Ragged Sky, 2013) and Imaginarium (Loonfeather, 2005); a translation from Spanish, Birds on the Kiswar Tree (2Leaf, 2014) by Peruvian Andean poet Odi Gonzales; and as coauthor, the textbook Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets (Texture, 2013; 2019). The recipient of fifteen Pushcart Prize nominations, Levin has published poems, stories, essays, and translations in Ploughshares, Boulevard, The Hopkins Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Cleaver, Kerem, The Reconstructionist, Judaism, Lilith, The Arty Semite, Painted Bride Quarterly, Rattle, and Verse Daily. Her poems also appear in The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), The Torah: A Women's Commentary (URJ, 2008), and Rosh Hashanah Readings (Jewish Lights, 2006). Her website is www.lynnlevinpoet.com. Copyright © 2021 Purdue University