Page:American Poetry 1922.djvu/129



Old Jews! Well, David, aren't we? What news is that to make you see so red, To swear and almost tear your beard in half? Jeered at? Well, let them laugh. You can laugh longer when you're dead.

What? Are you still too blind to see? Have you forgot your Midrash! . . . They were right, The right goyim with their angry stones. You should be buried in the desert out of sight And not a dog should howl miscarried moans Over your foul bones. ..

Have you forgotten what is promised us, Because of stinking days and rotting nights? Eternal feasting, drinking, blazing lights With endless leisure, periods of play! Supernal pleasures, myriads of gay Discussions, great debates with prophet-kings! And rings of riddling scholars all surrounding God who sits in the very middle, expounding The Torah. . . . Now your dull eyes glisten! Listen:

It is the final Day. A blast of Gabriel's horn has torn away 115