DEUTERONOMY

     Deuteronomy, they called the second telling
     To a generation that had not slaved in Egypt
     Nor known the golden calf.

     It was not that they would be much holier.
     Time would tell,
     But they were yet untested - - virginal
     Still to be bought by the gold
     Or caught in prophesy
     And all the better for never faltering.

     Then it would be good to tell again
     The ten great laws to all attentive,
     Without idolatry, a golden calf.
     Let the law become the conversation
     Not its giving with lightning bolts
     And fear and consternation.
     Prepare for years of fine debate
     On these and all other laws
     So let us seek the just and true.

     Search through the real
     For that would make it worth
     A second telling.

     Give me some cause to stay these final years
     Look out on a land that's everything
     But holy, trying to improve spirit
     So they may enter all the other Canaans
     Struggle with the newer Philistines.
     When only these words are left for comfort.

     What is it if I sit at His right hand      [G-d's]
     When nothing here is meant to stir
     While the earthly multitudes
     Have made themselves
                         as gods?

Jay Cohen