Two Old Men

by Marc Mangel

 

I

 

I passed an arab today and indeed he

was a holy man.

A worker by his clothes and hands

smeared with dirt his face and his all

in the cold he stood

barefoot

faced

to

mecca

to meet

his God

and prayed softly with the

fervor of the few of God

my eye too closed and for the moment of

eternity I joined his soul and saw

his sights and thus I to was

captured and ensared by the religous man.

 

II

 

An old Jew visited me today. he too wore

the sign of the religious

too often perverted by the

sactimonious fakirs

a staunch and majestic man

bent

fearing

God fearing

he sold the magic carpet

the one that can

unlock

heaven

 

III

 

two old men

enemies

friends

partners in a world which neither wants

partners in a world not of God

but where men of God

are the

beggars of life.

March 1973