A Blessing for Jean-Paul, Thirteen
Rent from DeepDyve- A Blessing for Jean-Paul, Thirteen
My son prepares for his bar-mitzvah.He has his father's tall physique.His moustache has begun to sprout.Hair springs up all over his body.His voice is trying hard to deepen.
His interpretations astound his teachers,The wheat bows down to JosephIn his dream as his brothers will, later.He is also learning to wear tsitsit.He is learning not to let the flame go out.
He is learning not to let the flame go out,Though doubt will darken all his learning."Baruch atah adonai …" He connectsto distant generations, all devout.He even reaches me, my heart of leather.
"Elohenu melech ha olam." None of usare religious, really, since his grandparentsscrambled away from the Lawas from a bear. My spirit still Red,though I melt at his prayers.
"Asher kidshanu b'mitsvotav" I sayin my atheist's opportunistic whisper;he knows the blessing for wine, for bread,though his soul reads English,Animal Farm and Charlotte's Web.Protect him … he who could pass for a goy—with his peachfuzz skin and his turned-up nose—Let him be wise and ambitious and cleverwith a n'shumah that embraces even beggars:let him know who he is wherever he goes.
Nikki Stiller is an associate professor of English at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Her poems, essays, and stories have appeared in a wide variety of periodicals, from The New York Times to Home Planet News. She is the author of five books, three of them poetry, including the latest entitled Burial Ship.
