V

Glosses

Moses, who left a cool palace and pleasant walks
in a garden beside the Nile
to become a shepherd in a desert, 
thought it, no doubt, a small matter
that his people leave their drudgery,
the commands of princes and blows of the masters,
for the wilderness—
just to be free.

As I sit in the street-car and hear the chatter about me,
I do not envy Solomon
who understood the language of birds as well.
What do birds talk about?
The weather, I suppose.
O yes, they brought Solomon news
of what was said about him
so that it became a proverb not to speak of the king,
even in one’s bedroom, lest a bird tell it.

Loquacious Gauls and Greeks,
will you not learn from Caesar 
to be brief;
and you, zealous Jews,
still compassionate,
will you not learn
merely to understand
like Caesar?

Scorn
shall be your meat
instead of praise;
you shall eat and eat of it
all your days,
and grow strong on it
and live long on it, Jew.
You will not find it poison
as the Gentiles do.

VI
The Letter
I have heard of this destruction—
it is in our books.
I have read of these rains and floods,
but now I have only to go to the window
and see it.

I was always with Noah and the animals,
warm and comfortable in the ark,
and now—
is it possible?—
am I to drown
in the cold flood
with the wicked,
among the animals that have crawled upon the rocks and hills
in vain?

I walk slowly in the sunshine watching
the trees and flowers,
smelling a pungent weed, noting a bird’s
two notes.