Linda Schiller   

 

I sat in a different seat tonight.
We were a little late to services
so we didn’t sit facing the bema the way we usually do
But rather off to the side,
Facing, as it turned out, west.
With the view out the two tall six-sliced windows as our long view
and the side of the Ark and the side of the rabbi’s face in closer focus.
As the evening progressed the long view from the windows suddenly commanded my attention:
“Oh, look!”
The black crossbars were framing brilliant peach-pink cloud-fingers as they illuminated the edges between day and night
while we read about being written into the Book of Life
between this night and the next:
A slideshow of God’s palette
That I would have missed
Had I sat in my usual seat.