On The Day of Atonement
Yehuda Amichai
On the Day of Atonement in 1967
I put on my dark holiday clothes and went to the Old City in Jerusalem
I stood for some time, before the alcove of an Arab’s shop,
Not far from Damascus Gate,
A shop of buttons and zippers and spools of thread in all colors
And snaps and buckles
A precious light and a great many colors like a Holy Ark with its doors ajar
I told him in my heart that my father, too,
Had such a shop of threads and buttons.
I explained to him in my heard all about the tens of years
And the reasons and the circumstances because of which I am now here
And my father’s shop is in ashes there, and he is buried here
By the time I had finished, it was time for Ne’ilah
(Closing of the gates prayer at the end of Yom Kippur)
He too pulled down the shutter and locked the gate,
And I went back home the all the worshipers.
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