Your last name means “heart” in Hebrew.
You were, when I knew you, a hulking husk
of a man, shaggy and snaggle-toothed,
limping on your cane, but still
you never skipped a reading,
sitting on your stool
at the end of the bar,
reading your work, sharp and short,
in your New York cabbie voice.
Peace, Mighty Heart,
and may the ShekhinahThe feminine name of God, expounded upon in the rabbinic era and then by the Kabbalists in extensive literature on the feminine attributes of the divine.
drive you home in her taxi.
You were, when I knew you, a hulking husk
of a man, shaggy and snaggle-toothed,
limping on your cane, but still
you never skipped a reading,
sitting on your stool
at the end of the bar,
reading your work, sharp and short,
in your New York cabbie voice.
Peace, Mighty Heart,
and may the ShekhinahThe feminine name of God, expounded upon in the rabbinic era and then by the Kabbalists in extensive literature on the feminine attributes of the divine.
drive you home in her taxi.
