“Yom Kip­pur – East Riv­er, New York City” by Robert Frank. Gelatin Sil­ver Print.

In Robert Frank’s photograph

of Ortho­dox Jews at the East River

five men in fedo­ras have their backs to the camera

while a boy in a kip­pah shows his right profile

against the Brook­lyn shore.

Invis­i­ble and emphat­ic in this 1955 photograph

is the emp­ty field where Euro­pean Jew­ry used to stand.

And because all the fig­ures in the picture

are fac­ing away from us

(except for the boy in the kip­pah,

who is look­ing at something

the oth­ers are not)

we are made to occu­py that emptiness,

are fixed in it

like ghosts watch­ing the liv­ing move on.

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 2019 win­ner of the prize. If you’re inter­est­ed in par­tic­i­pat­ing in the series, please check out the guide­lines here.