REBECCA SEIFERLE
Toledo
The synagogue of Samuel Ha-Levy
is full of the laughter of God. He laughs
ha ha
in the nave of larch wood, relieved
to be so free of images, no longer forced
into limbs. He laughs in the psalms of David,
written into the walls, still dancing naked
before the niche, empty of Ark. He laughs
and Samuel laughs with him. Samuel who died,
being tortured, his dignity, the hidden
treasure of which he would not speak . .. .The Holy
of Holies of Samuel Ha-Levy forced
to become the Transit of the Virgin,
the Jewish Quarter made into a cloister,
then a barracks, a warehouse, and
ha, ha,
a time came, when the Virgin vanished too.
And most of the saints in Spain
are the lost children of the Jews.
REGINALD SHEPHERD
Interglacial
White of extinct gods' etch and simmer
spills from salt heaven, pluvial
law of breakage suffering
away from himself, throat kissed
shale black. (Shall I compare thee,
incommensurate, and greet you as
a god, good substitute? Lie
