ON THE STEPS OF TEMPLE SHALOM<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Inside the old, gray stone house, Maybe they are learning to be rare are learning the flag of Israel than one of my uncles would have said too far not to understand They are further away all the time, <\/p>\n “On the Steps of Temple Shalom” is reprinted from Time as Distance<\/em><\/a> (New Issues\/Western Michigan U Press).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mark Halperin\u2019s<\/a> fifth volume of poetry<\/a>,\u00a0Falling Through the Music,<\/em> <\/a>was published by University of Notre Dame Press (2007).\u00a0 He is co-author of Accent on Meter<\/em><\/a> (NCTE<\/span>), and co-translator of A Million Premonitions,<\/em><\/a> poems from the Russian of Victor Sosnora (Zephyr Press<\/span>).\u00a0 Halperin lives near Washington\u2019s Yakima River and fishes avidly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ON THE STEPS OF TEMPLE SHALOM Inside the old, gray stone house, its eaves trimmed in the flat-board, Midwest style of the neighborhood, … the children are learning Hebrew … and history and to be Jewish as best they … Continue reading
\nits eaves trimmed in the flat-board,
\nMidwest style of the neighborhood,
\n…<\/span> the children are learning Hebrew
\n…<\/span> and history and to be Jewish
\nas best they can where Jews are few.<\/p>\n
\nwhile old snow melts from the roof
\nand the sun, absent recently, proves
\n…<\/span> it can shine in the blue
\n…<\/span> and white sky. These are colors
\nthe children would be sure to notice, who<\/p>\n
\nand their ties to all that history.
\nRecognize them? They\u2019d rather be
\n…<\/span> screaming and chasing each other
\n…<\/span> under them like other children.
\nAnd they will soon, but must wait. More<\/p>\n
\nJews can\u2019t live in Yakima or
\nthe town we drove from. One would be sure
\n…<\/span> we\u2019d never be American
\n…<\/span> enough, another terrified
\nwe just might, all of them come<\/p>\n
\nonly the shadow of the past
\ngrows, but thinner, more odorless.
\n…<\/span> The children sit in a room
\n…<\/span> waiting for their parents
\nto rescue them from Temple Shalom.<\/p>\n
\nas Temple Shalom is, under its blue
\nand white skullcap. It weathers the distance
\n…<\/span> carried even here, the Jew\u2019s
\n…<\/span> childlike refusal whose name,
\nif there is one, like God\u2019s, we must not use.<\/p>\n