The 15th of September packed a wallop.
Breezes, cold, brisk.
Slapping faces.
Sending morning walkers back inside for scarves, jackets.
Sun, moving lower in the sky.
Announcing fall.
To anyone who’d listen.
Hear the rattled cawing of crows.
To anyone who’d look.
Note the orange tinge on trees.
Dry leaves swirling on the ground.
Summer flowers contracting, wan.
Echinaceas going to seed.
To anyone who’d sniff.
Smell the New Year approaching.
Apples, honey before a holiday meal.
With siblings, nieces, cousin.
Roseanne chanting Ma’ariv in the background.
On-line in Connecticut.
Ushering in Rosh Hashanah on Shabbat.
A first foray as cantor.
Of a congregation.
Change of season.
New phase of life.
As the day disappears.
Becomes 5754.
Though places at table, empty
for grandparents who are gone,
from beyond, they kvell and beam,
to hear Roseanne in song.
Lynn Benjamin
September 18, 2023
On Rosh Hashanah Eve, the Jewish calendar changes years. So, on September 15, 2023, at sundown, the year changed from 5783 to 5784.
