JOSEPH BROD


Joseph Brod
hunchback to crowds
of his young proud world
as a child of Czechs
with the misfortune
of men, crime and god
in a time of fascist vermin
a great author,mentor
wrote in beautiful German,
aided life sustaining Werfel,
the satirist disdaining Krauss
and laughing Hasek
of Good Soldier Sverjk,
encouraged musical Janacek
in his lyrical operas
saved books of Kafka
escaped to Israel.