New Year Ritual

Why does guilt burden us

only once a year? Do our sins

form such a heavy pack

that we’re forced to stumble

toward water and unload it

perplexing all the fish below,

knowing only too well

our pack will fill again

imperfect beings that we are.

Wishes in Jerusalem’s Western Wall

At the end of each day

he collects the white slips

he calls them his birds

his little white doves

stuffed by believers

into spaces in niches

for some higher being

to read.

This spiritual mailman

will later consign

his little white doves

to their fiery fate

and watch ashes rise

with a prayer of his own.