Yahrzeit

They opened Fenway/the year my grandfather/was born

(My photo)

Yahrzeit
-for Milton Marks (1912-2000)

1
They opened Fenway Park
the year my grandfather 
was born 

I have a memory 113 years long 
because of him: 
Roosevelt, Taft and Woodrow 
Wilson 

Should I count the birth
of his father
my memoirs run a full 
153 which, in meters, is about 
the distance of an average 

Mickey Mantle homer. 

But truthfully, 
that number comes up 
short.

2
On July 4th
Milton died on an evening 
walk having watched Cagney 
as George M. Cohan again 
that afternoon 

How James Francis 
could dance and be a simultaneous 
gangster while my grandfather
was a pitcher, a tennis player

An officer who identified 
dead sailors by their dental records
on coral beaches island hopping
toward Japan

Lt. Marks on board a destroyer 
in the Pacific War while his father 
and mother's village was gone for good 

In Europe

Two wars/same war
if you couldn't pay
he'd care for your 
teeth, your health
anyway.

3
My father would
argue with his father from
Sabra and Shatila to Grenada
the retaking of Hue

Begin and Meir
Nixon and Kissinger
our American Israel

My grandfather never spoke
of what he saw while they both
made a case for soldiers 

Spouses and children 
no matter whether what 
was won or lost 
their healing hands 
remind me of worshippers 
touching the Kotel.

4
Milton laughed when Yaz 
and Longborg took the Sox 
to the series (he laughed often)
but never believed in curses

The Babe's departure
didn't make Boston lose
and Jews, well, who knows 

The only thing you have 
is your word in this world 
it's your willingness to work

But the riddle is why you,
why not.

5
The following phrase isn’t mine 
but today I intone it for him:

יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא

-Jeremy Nathan Marks