1.

first open well come:
gateless gates, all ways;
eyes lift, interrupt,
bless and embrace
watered faces.

2.

in the field: ashes conjure;
light contains walls, mother’s tent
talks, then laughter. out here it smells
of worlds to come.

3.

the ends of desire hide
behind shaken stonewalls
on the road somewhere
between a fixed day,
and an open night’s dream.

4.

the clouds surround the words within
the letters of the law: because our forms
we have we will
always change, last forever.

5.

so much depends upon a leader’s brow:
mirrored doubt, names erased;
hearts drawn to a shouldered sin
forgotten: rising clouds.

6.

left over for later,
like lost bones waiting
to be restaged, already
dreaming of a world to come.

7.

vapor temples fall, rise, in moonlight;
just one dance for all the days
above nothing but: rain,
meet waters, rising.

Hillel Broder currently serves as Principal at DRS Yeshiva High School for Boys. He holds a doctorate in English from The CUNY Graduate Center. His second book, Daily Blessings, is forthcoming from Ben Yehuda Press.