Home

• Artifacts
• Buildings & Businesses
• Churches
• Holidays & Celebrations
• Counties/Locations
  • Bay
  • Midland
  • Saginaw
  • Other
• Delta College
• Early Settlers
• Ethnic Background
  • African Americans
  • Americans of Spanish-Speaking Descent
  • European Immigrants
  • Native Americans
• Local, Michigan, U.S. and World Events
• Family Genealogy
• Farming
• Libraries & Museums
• Local Sites
• Logging
• Musicians, Artists & Famous People
• Nature, Weather & Four Seasons
• Railroads
• Schools
• Sports

• About the project
• Authors List
• Resources

A Century

 by Larry Levy  

After the Great Pogrom, 1906,
Julius fled to the Lower East Side.
There he slept in a windowless box
on Delancy Street, and bowed

 in the Big Shul, dreaming of home,
the Friday candles, the Saturday bread,
one of thousands unwelcome
and alone, there and here a breed

 apart, neither Yankee nor Cossack,
but a creature rooted in a Word.
Like a horse, he worked the secular week,
his Sabbath approaching like a bride.

 So he lived. The century died.
My week and weekend, in the modern way,
blur the line between work and play,
my memory saving what custom lost.

 My children, scattered south and west,
question fate but seldom pray
in any tongue, ancient or new,
save for a whisper or a sigh.