Autumn’s Grey and Melancholy, Henry Farrer, 1884
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
In Shtetl Life three men,
peak capped, seem to ponder
the greyness of everything.
How to hide a grey horse
in a tiny grey roofed barn,
how to tell one grey tree
it will soon burn. That maybe
they imagined God wrong.
That behind his grey beard
is a being as frightened
as everyone when the pogroms
come and a child wonders how
between a thumb and forefinger
she can hold onto the greying moon.
This piece is a part of the Berru Poetry Series, which supports Jewish poetry and poets on PB Daily. JBC also awards the Berru Poetry Award in memory of Ruth and Bernie Weinflash as a part of the National Jewish Book Awards. Click here to see the 2020 winner of the prize. If you’re interested in participating in the series, please check out the guidelines here.
Originally from Montreal, Babo Kamel’s work is published in reviews such as Greensboro Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, CV2, Poet Lore, and Best Canadian Poetry 2020. She is a Best of Net nominee, and a six-time Pushcart nominee, Her chapbook, After, is published with Finishing Line Press. Find her at: babokamel.com