praying with the bluejays

winter morning,

outdoors for prayer

in dad’s blue and white

tallis: 

a flag—

reminder of the tie

between seen sky

and hidden shamayim,

His Eye and law—

my late father’s tallis.

in still-bare trees,

the bluejays,

accustomed to my 

presence

and daily offerings

of peanuts, gather,

chatter, until, 

reaching the Shema

they quiet

and as one 

we declare

Gd is One.