IMPROVISATION #76
MAX JACOB'S MEMORY
(1876-1944)

Light from an eye socket
over orphaned steps
a hidden outsider
carries his grocery greens
through Parisian streets
lighting a candle
muttering prayers
in the church
dusk falls
sweeping on your shadows
by an animate mystery
of holy water
picked up by the Gestapo
the lines on your face
from the gutters
of limpid snow.