The Parting

[Pilgrim]

The Parting

I dreamt last night
of fearfulness
and separation …
so long ago,
so renascent
in sadness,
in regret.

There was
faint music
from a distant room –
no symphony
nor madrigal
nor fugue,
but sweet-remembered
fragments
of a peasant song
from infants’ school;
and young frau Rosenbaum,
substantial in her girth
and in her kindnesses,
who stood her ground
protectively
when noisily they came
to rid the school
of vermin,
so they said;
and cursed her then,
and when she would not yield:
Fat Jew they yelled
and roughed her
to the trucks
Treblinka-bound;
while I, dry-eyed and unaware,
though yet in parting’s thrall,
waved mute goodbye
until she disappeared.

Awakened then,
to darkness and remorse,
I wept a silent tear
for our parting.