TESTIMONY

Watching "To Russia with love"
with Sean Connery
and Lotte Lenya
at the premier
the latter I met Lotte backstage
after her fine performance
in "Brecht on Brecht"
as we gathered for her cast party
my German came back
and I recited Heine to her
telling her that after all
the book burning
the death marches
interrogations in the camps
her enduring self
kept me from blasphemy
by turning to the God of my fathers
for consolation
and knowing there is only refuge
in someone beyond art,desire
politics,and knowledge,
who remembers the ashes
in my mouth
that the unknown God
has revealed himself to me
at the love of my Messiah.