Reading this along with me
in your solitary cocoon, if having a faith
unlike mine or having no faith at all,
you are worrying how no one will come
to the funeral of a dearly beloved
parent, spouse, pet or child in time
during a riot, pandemic or hurricane,
listen carefully if you don’t know
why we Jews sit shiva for a week,
surrounded by ten friends who will say
the Kaddish, a prayer in praise
of that solitary and universal power
(with no mention of death)
from which all things inclusive
of joy and sorrow, warm sun, cold rain,
insight and darkness come,
and even now in a surcease of pain
gather in order to fill a room
of any size on any convenient day
with the warmth of bodies
not your own, so that you will not suffer alone,
not at a grave site but in the home
where the Seder feast and children were made,
so that your tears will fall gently on a page
like this one, happy and sad at once.