EDMOND JABES' EXODUS
(1912-1991)

Out of Egypt
Jabes to Paris
now another script
out of Paris
a boy's eye does not move
the rain makes ablutions
in a mystical shroud
above the shepherd heavens
in a doomed city
without even a memory
of Vichy water
a people of Enlightenment
again pass over to promises
to cross over and live
in a free France
yet every dawn is bloodshot
twilight turns cold
in shame.