Joseph Zitt

Joseph Zitt (1995)

I came to you for answers
and you gave me stories
  of Rabbis speaking in the dark of ancient caves
  of mothers hiding children in the reeds
  of frogs and locusts raining down on those
    who did not know you

I came to you for answers
and you gave me songs
  half remembered, changing when recalled
  reaching back into the liturgies of time
  harmonies repeated when the melodies were lost

I came to you for answers
and you gave me symbols
  a shank of lamb
    (or if not lamb, that which signifies a lamb)
  dry and brittle bread,
    the burdens we still carry with us
      when we run
  herbs as bitter
    as the taste of that
      which still enslaves us from within

I came to you for answers
  and I waited
  and I listened
  and I read the given texts
  and I ate the solemn sacrifice
  and I prayed

...and never heard the answers...

but still I will return again
  to speak your sacred name
  and to thank you
    for accepting, at least,
      my questions.