For My Daughters, on Yom Kippur
by Maxim D. Shrayer
If there weren’t any offenses,
How would neighbors mend their fences?
If we didn’t have to fast,
Life would seem so fast.
If one’s actions weren’t demeaning,
Would remorse have meaning?
Being forced to earn forgiveness
Denigrates what hope it gives us.
The Book of Life has lots of room:
Bride is hurrying to her groom,
Wife to husband, babe to mother,
Knife to calf and scythe to mower….
Let us pause on Yom Kippur:
Easy fast and sweet New Yur.
Maxim D. Shrayer, a bilingual author and translator, teaches at Boston College. His recent books of poetry include Of Politics and Pandemics, in English, and Stikhi iz aipada, in Russian. Shrayer’s new memoir, Immigrant Baggage, is forthcoming in 2023.
