first contact

having wandered from his mother,
he walks the lobby into the synagogue
and up to the housing
of the Torah.

he pulls on the cabinet door,
stares at the ornate scroll within, laden with silver and bells,
at the embroidered cloth covering.

"BA!" he shouts,
touches the scripture;
the words within the labyrinth
of rolled pages stir.

he pulls at the tassels
and handles,
pulls harder, pulls and falls back on his behind,
and the books of Moses
come clamoring down on his 1-year-old head.

stunned for a moment,
he begins to laugh, giggle,
shriek with delight.

and a strange musical tone,
a choir of millions in one note,
a simple ringing in the right ear
which never will leave him,
which none of a string of physicians
will be able to cure or explain,
will become his companion and solace in loneliness and loss…

and beginning to feel a need inside himself,
he wanders off to find his mother.