Parnassus
Albert Goldbarth
1990
Technically I was a man.
This spindly squeaky thing with the Adam’s-apple accent was, by virtue of being thirteen and bar-mitzvahed, a technical man.
And so the phone call came: they needed a tenth for a minyan. Nathan Kaplan—I remembered Mr. Kaplan, didn’t I?—needed to say the yiskor prayers for his wife, and if I weren’t there in attendance…
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the blanched street of the Jewish Quarter
kept watch over your agony.
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Yingl-tsingl-khvat
I have a story here to tell
To all my children—you as well.
Hush, dear friends, be very still—
Hear my story, if you will.
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