If souls walk among us.

He is walking
through ruins of his wounded
synagogue.

He is preaching
through unborn poems to a jury:
Giving life is justice. 

He is quoting
Rashi, vintner-scholar, his teachings key  
for corking this bitter wine.
                                           
Or….

He is outraged
by murders in his home and kneads
a needle through Haman’s arm.

I’ll  never know.
         
I only know
his pulpit where I lifted a scroll to the sky
for worshippers to see

is dead to me,
gone (I hope) to where he is now,
rabbi and synagogue remarried. 

As for he
who violated the holy space?
I …. 

                                                                          Remembering Dr. Herman Hailperin,
                                                                          late rabbi of Tree of Life synagogue,
                                                                          Pittsburgh, PA, and my uncle.