The Impregnable Barrier Of Time Poem by Charles Chaim Wax

Speaking to Jake Fineman
28 years ago
my study hall partner
at Spinoza high school
a young lad I was
and enjoyed conversation
with older men
perhaps searching
for what the future
might hold for me
Jake said it was time for him
to get out of teaching
18 years enough
but nothing he could do
to earn money
his voice steeped
in weary acceptance
as if he’d pondered this question
long and hard
but to no avail
and couldn’t return to the sea now
like before when
youth stoked his heart
with burning dreams
glowing with promise
a sailor
he met an Italian girl in ‘38
rich and a fascist
Jake a Jew
asked her to come
to America
she didn’t
but after the war
journeyed to Italy
the woman rooted
in the secret happiness of his heart
calling him home
to her home
by the sea
now total devastation
the navy
blasting every stone
into oblivion
no trace.