Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky

Merciful God

Merciful God Merciful God, Choose another people, Elect another.144 We are tired of death and dying, We have no more prayers. Choose another people, Elect another. We have no more blood To be a sacrifice. Our house has become a desert. The earth is insufficient for our graves, No more laments for us, No more dirges In the old, holy books. Merciful God, Sanctify another country, Another mountain. We have strewn all thefieldsand every stone With ash, with holy ash. With the aged, With the youthful, And with babies, we have paid For every letter of your Ten Commandments. Merciful God, Raise your fiery brow, And see the peoples of the world— Give them the prophecies and the Days of Awe. Your word is babbled in every language— Teach them the deeds, The ways of temptation. 353 ,n:nx unxi JTDOXIS is ID ion ]"x ^K ps nrDt^ H nnx ps is 1945 354 Merciful God, Give us simple garments Of shepherds with their sheep, Blacksmiths at their hammers, Laundry-washers, skin-flayers, And even the more base. And do us one more favor: Merciful God, Deprive us of the Divine Presence of genius.145 1945 355 irr^x is nna x ,ioyYJX • T I ix nna x wrx 7X amp xs tra ny^T &&srenam§ yt^x &oxn •pn D ^ oi3 arc ^n? , n ^ ^ jnytra p pis^ yam y^x iD^a^ixs jranta^ axn; D ,pin m ^nt;ya yam ixa ,i?w p a B^a T^X; D ^^xnp yon ix 7T iixi^iyi t?^xnyi axn yn ,|yaiay^ D ^ a I^XID pp 71 ixs •siVo pp 7T nxs wa f yaiy px^yaa^x o^a ^K t:ox«n n .SIT x oi3 ]is ]xt: ooay^s n ^T^X m px D^arn ]i oapVxn n pxntr-n nypmy^S p i yaxna n »T§yi axn 7X ^nxn pa w m n nxs iix tr'potm ixs ova n ip^a^n ^ix 356 ...