Slowing Down Towards Evening on Yom Kippur

This afternoon, the paginated lumps
Of time don’t want to let this holiday
Elapse: they’ll stretch a little longer, stay
The final service till full dark. Four humps

Of suited shoulders: that is how we look
To those behind, the recently confirmed
Who teeter on their heely heights, whose permed
Or razored hair is tended as the book

Gets skinnier. Who knows if love of God
Is why we stay, or if it’s some desire
To hear the old songs through, to keep the higher
(or Highest) Being happy if it should

Be keeping track. But when we see a man
Leave early with his yawning son, and pad
Outside, the kid’s smile shows the doubts he had
About repentance’s rewards are gone.

1990

Copyright 2015 Joshua S. Jacobs