Even When I Was Young

-Yehoshua November
August 23, 2010

Some Jews say

that a number of possible soul mates

await us in this world,

and depending on which way we turn 

we will meet one of the chosen.

When I was a student, my family lived

in many cities.

And in each city there was at least one girl

with long, dark eyelashes

or a tired voice that, over the phone

 seemed to hold the honey

of my redemption.

For, even then,

even as a boy,

I awaited your earth-like song,

the song that would send

the rest of the women

to redeem the destinies

of other strangers.

Yehoshua November's work has appeared in The Sun, The Forward, Prairie Schooner, Margie, and a number of other publications. His poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and selected as the winner of Prairie Schooner's Bernice Slote Award. God's Optimism, his first book of poems, won the 2010 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. It's now available at http://www.mainstreetrag.com/YNovember.html