Louis Untermeyer
ROAST LEVIATHAN
Old Jews! Well, David, aren't we?
What news is that to make you see so red,
To swear and almost tear your beard in half?
Jeered at? Well, let them laugh.
You can laugh longer when you're dead.
What? Are you still too blind to see?
Have you forgot your Midrash! . . . They were right,
The right goyim with their angry stones.
You should be buried in the desert out of sight
And not a dog should howl miscarried moans
Over your foul bones . . .
Have you forgotten what is promised us,
Because of stinking days and rotting nights?
Eternal feasting, drinking, blazing lights
With endless leisure, periods of play!
Supernal pleasures, myriads of gay
Discussions, great debates with prophet-kings!
And rings of riddling scholars all surrounding
God who sits in the very middle, expounding
The Torah. . . . Now your dull eyes glisten!
Listen:
It is the final Day.
A blast of Gabriel's horn has torn away
