2AM, and the Rabbinical Students Stand in Their Bathrobes [by Yehoshua November]

Yehoshua November

2AM, and the Rabbinical Students Stand in Their Bathrobes

2AM, and the rabbinical students stand in their bathrobes

at the edge of the yeshiva parking lot, watching

the practiced motions of muscular firemen disembarking

from their engine. Soon, it will be determined

the youngest student in the building

pulled the basement alarm

after learning, over the dormitory pay phone,

his parents, back in Baltimore, intend to end

their nineteen year marriage before Passover.

The only one the rabbis have not accounted for

crouches in his closet behind a row of black sports coats.

And because the yeshiva caters to souls

but also bodies,

the early morning mysticism class

on why the Divine Presence cannot dwell

amongst those plagued by sadness

has been cancelled.

— Yehoshua November

first posted on Verse Daily

       

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Author: The Best American Poetry