If I were asked to find a worthy king
For a once proud people wracked by self-contempt,
I’d choose a man with bent the Jews have termed
Prophetic: meaning not clairvoyant brain,
But stubborn mind to serve eternal truths
In face of fashion’s brazen tyranny
And scandal-sniffing vultures of the news.
A worthy king, however, would know shame
(The sort that Adam tasted when he fell)
And, like poor naked Lear, have stood before
The absolute abyss while being yet
More sinned against than sinning; fortune’s fool.
In short my king would understand most well
The nation’s cares, for they are but his own.
Jerusalem
5 October 1994