Former English Facilitator and Writing Coordinator for the Rye Neck School District in Westchester County, New York, Carolee Ackerson Bertisch is the author of Who Waves the Baton?, a book of poetry and prose (Hedgehog Books, 2005).

She writes a regular book review for The Ponte Vedra Recorder and leads local book and poetry discussion groups in Ponte Vedra, Florida.

He stands straight as a flag pole
in the sepia photograph
framed deep in dark wood
on the wall of my parents’ bedroom.
He gazes with gentle eyes
wavy brown hair full mustache
under aquiline nose,
hand on grandmother’s shoulder.

Apocryphal stories about
my grandfather:
came from Kiev, Poland,
spoke seven languages,
an interpreter in the courts.
Although he died too soon,
sired five children,
my father born in America.

Since my father’s demise,
Grandfather resides with me,
peering out to see his progeny.
Prophet from the past,
filled with knowledge
we cannot pierce,
veils his message,
meets our eyes.

Violin’s plaintive tones
played by teenage boy
pluck the heartstrings,
resonate deep in the soul,
blend piano and soprano,
combine to lofty fugue.

Green eternal light glows
carvings etch Hebrew letters
polished wooden Ark reveals
silver encased Torahs
jingle, rustle as they are lifted,
turned to hushed congregation.

Arms high, robe glistening, the
Rabbi extols power of love:
“Let violence be gone;
let the day come when evil
shall give way to goodness;
when war shall be forgotten;
all shall at last live in freedom.”
So they understood and prayed
six thousand years ago.

A revelation, this somber service,
arrayed in splendor,
ancient words significant today.