35

The rabbi would read off the names of the congregation he used
        to head
and as he read aloud each name would add: "Dead!"
A note of satisfaction in his voice
that he was still alive—
feeble in body and feebler still in mind.

Return to By the Well of Living and Seeing and the Fifth Book of the Maccabees

Material from
POEMS 1918-1975: THE COMPLETE POEMS OF CHARLES REZNIKOFF Copyright © 1977
by Marie Syrkin Reznikoff and reprinted with the permission of Black Sparrow Press.