Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky

I Kick Off My Shoes and Socks in Exhaustion

I Kick Off My Shoes and Socks in Exhaustion I kick off my shoes and socks in exhaustion To recover from a wasted day. My feet begin their complaining With naked sorrow and mutely say: "Where on earth? Going where? And for what? Chase after an illusion, it disappears. The dazzle's wrapped about a spool. A thread of dust's woven in a shirt. In old age, does a human being do this, you fool?"221 I block my ears, so not to hear my feet's conversation, But my ears burst into theflamesof moral conflagration: "What? What? What have we heard? Heard a blessing over an empty cup. Desecrated the virtue of a simple piece of glass, Heard the hiss of foam and hops, The wine's all run out to the last drops. It's wild and strange that in your old years The God-blessed strings deafen your ears." I want to lift my hands, to shield myself from wrath, But they hang like strangers, as if not mine since birth. They mutter in anger: "What's the point? Why bother Greeting him and her with 'Sholem' with a handshake? We have no peace. Our fingers ache.222 And in your old age, nearly a century old— How does it suit you, this wandering in the void?" Seeking protection in my faithful eyes, I looked into my mirror. But there stood a stranger, an unknown face. He gazed at me, as if in deep disgrace: "How does a stranger come to me in the mirror?" 463 •iVna ijmx*? x rx TZPB pa tyiw pa p§ •fK *?X§ DX *?Xa D3X pX ^DTIW ^X pX ^ ^X .nyriK 7T f yt px Vpajn p a ix is Dip 7« JXD lyi - xma DJ;T pixi mis H •' J J yy j TIX 7T ixaijn 7X p§ ^ s ^ px ns^an-nnox 'n ^ ^xp p-^a ij?t:aix oaip oj; ,Viaa ps t?s^x iye H ]ya^?T oy ?D^a DD^n n xHin pr px D^ixtxn ^aioyi x na Ta t:xn; o •jn^a p a T'axV px i s ^ yam H > T rx r:x •lyai^a ya^a Din p^x ^nyo^ya t^xn n^a nxa pa 7X ^ytymipi »^ T l p is Ta Dnjrt^xa rx'o ^ 1964 464 ...