[Untitled]
Aryeh Cohen
sometimes you have to ignore
the blinding burning pull of anger
overlook the sharp edges the teeth
honed on a stone of short and
piercing jabs and settle on the
quotidian. checking the manuscript
and noting the variants. even the ones
that do not matter. even the one that
happened because the scribe a thousand
years ago was angry as he wrote this
line knowing he was destined for
greater things than rote work that
he could excel at the gold leaf, the
more elevated tasks of illumination
and so bent-back grasping the quill
he completes the line, a yod becomes
a vav, a third person statement is now
confessional, Abbaye’s partner Rava
is now his master Rabbah. A line of
dialogue has gone missing, erased
in the rage of dashed hopes. now
recorded on my screen.
Aryeh Cohen is a professor of Rabbinic Literature at the American Jewish University. His latest book is Justice in the City from Academic Studies Press. His writing has appeared in many places. His poems have appeared in Kerem, and Cobra Milk.
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