Blessing
I am ten at the
Supper table at
Grandma’s house
And Grandpa gives
The blessing a thing
Unfamiliar to me but a
Routine at Grandma’s at
The evening meal when we
All visit her a hundred miles or
So from our town but here in little
Egypt as southern Illinois is called
Our family is hard-shell Baptist at
Least for Sunday church and our
Main meal of the day most often
Baked chicken or ham with half
Potatoes baked mashed with
Paprika on top in the shells
Corn string beans carrots
And fresh bread with ice
Tea a feast but always
First a prayer by our
Grandpa unlike my
Home where meal
Talk is polite and
Often on music
Classical or
Broadway
Or on art
Never
Politics
As our father
Works for the federal
Civil service and is not allowed
Political opinions on pain of losing
His job so we at home discuss
Education and our lives and
Family but my mother is a
Jew at heart & heritage
Though we all attend
Presbyterian Church
Sunday school but
My sibs all seek
Many views
Of God so
We take
An eclectic
Approach to
Religion a sort
Of smorgasbord
View which would
Not be a good idea
At Grandma’s table as
My father’s family escaped
The ‘45 rising in Scotland after
Backing Prince Charlie fleeing to
The Carolinas Ohio southern Illinois
Mid 1700s to 1800s farming and
By the 1950s coal mining and
Vegetable gardening after
Sale of the farm whereas
My mother’s family from
Kiev disappeared in a
Pogrom except for a
Few who escaped
To America to the
Cincinnati Ohio
Rabbinical
Seminary
Where
My
Great
Uncle graduated
But my grandfather left
To become a physician near
St. Louis where my mother was
Raised studying literature art
Music but met my father in
Southern Illinois University
In Carbondale in coal
Country where they
Met married and
Had six children
Who have two
Backgrounds
But no habit
Of prayer
At meal
Time
Only a
Sense of
Proportion
That morals
Is what someone
Tells us is right or wrong
But ethics is what we know
In our heart is right or wrong.
And, the wisdom to stay
Silent when this can
Not be heard but
I am old now so
I am allowed a
Senior minute
Or decades
To speak
A truth
Plain,
A blessing
Unsaid