A Goodfellow

Goodman lay on a slab, like a marble cut by Praxiteles.

The jeweler brought up a bill:

She had sighed for a bracelet-the chippie nurtured at

Vassae.

He was a ready rooster, her gay cockalorum.

His mother prayed at Shabas at a seven-branched candle-

stick;

His father carried the Torah-a patriarch thick in Talmud.

The Mohel from Temple Sholom went through the rite of

correction

As the earth was made to receive him. The earth is the

wisest of mothers.

We will forget this killer, this low-life.

Black sheep in an evil wind, may you rest safely in

Abraham's bosom.