The Fourth Cup

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.