Hod sh’b Netzach*
                                     “Teach us to number our days.
                                      Teach us through numbering to treasure each day
                                      So we may open our hearts to Your wisdom
                                     And get us a heart of wisdom.
                                                                   Psalm 90:12 a variation
Scientific law, halachic law, democratic law,
tyrannical law, the laws of absurdity, the fences around
the law, robin’s  song from his hiding place
among new apple leaves, her flaring pink and pearl blossoms,
the cherry tree’s cloud of ivory petals up the road,

rain wet.  You can fall into madness counting
white blossoms, fallen, plastered to the rain-wet road.
But the impulse persists.  You can’t stop numbering
details of the crimes, psychotic cruelties the chains
of command devise, their maniacal falsehoods. 

And the prisoners who somehow survive,
most of them sane through wounded, wounded
body and mind.  And their lawyers seeking justice

as they navigate absurdity—all honor to them! 

 These details also numberless as apple blossoms,

cherry blossoms shining  and fluttering.  Help me to somehow…..grasp

each outrage….the glistening blood…
which is somehow…part of  this splendor.
                        like the glistening blood
my ancestors poured over altars, dashed across
garments, smeared on eartips, thumbs,

big toes of those trained and sanctified to stand,
to dare to stand, in the gap.   Help me dare
            to stand in the gap
            our lives our deaths
always crowding each other.  How often,

unexpected, in spite of despite, we gasp
at the splendor.
                                                                                5/7/2017 
         **Harmonic splendor w/in Eternal Endurance
       **“amazing variety……”,Rabbi Min Kantrowitz, Counting the Omer: A Kabbalistic Meditation Guide, Gaon Books, 2010, p.140.
        **halachic law-Hebrew-“a way of walking”—i.e. the “way” based on the written Torah