CLOSE

By James Goldberg


We joked that my grandparents’ north Provo block was Edgemont’s Little Asia. Bapuji had come first, back in the 1960s. Jasbir was there by the ’80s, when I was a kid. Being related to most Punjabis I knew, it took me years to realize he was just my neighbor. But that’s how Utah at its best is. Close. Ryus were across the street when I lived there in college, but the boys were Bapuji’s Cub Scouts and regularly occupied the kitchen table with crafts. Their 4-year-old sister would trike into the backyard and park just behind the house, sharing long stories through the window while I washed dishes. The mountains rose in the background, sheltering us. The loom for shared lives, woven into one home.


James Goldberg's family is Sikh on one side, Jewish on the other and Mormon in the middle. He is a noted Mormon poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, scholar and translator.