All Israel has a place
yet who will be for me.
If I alone
rest in the world to come
will all Israel be guaranteed entry,
and when,
if not now,
drought dust and war winds
parch our belonging,
are rains of existence
milk and honey of sustenance
only for myself?
Then and now who am I
if not a Shir to an Israel lost.
In the same storied footprints
we used to tread,
a shuffle catches our gait,
a stumbling block blinds us,
a silence now holds our foothold.
(Shir is the Hebrew word for song, poem, to sing. This poem is based on Pirke Avot 1:14 – If I am not for me, who will be for me? and when I am for myself alone, what am I? and if not now,when?)
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Jonathan Memmert has poetry published in journals and anthologies such as Anti Heroin Chic, Heavy Feather Review Side A,Vagabond City, Lone Mountain Literary Society, Poets for Science Global Gallery, and Viridine Literary Journal, among others. He is associate editor for the online poetry journal for emerging poets, The Marbled Sigh. He has an MFA from The City College of New York, and currently lives in New York City.