a jew, you were joyce's friend

the joyce of cork & galway, 

of trieste, zurich, paris

and, off course, anna l'liffey

she who riverrun on & on

even till the finnegans wake

 

you heard joyce's leery voice

echo in the words

as he drank his white wine

on your day of atonement

 

and, like molly,

faithful sorry you was

at the ten year break

between you two

 

but      you returned

to paris, after he was dead,

to sort out joyce's papers

you said in a letter from hell

 

for the Gestapo arrested you in '42

& you ended your life in Dachau

a shadow

of that other wandering jew.