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Way Ben Berman |
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[Listen to a reading of this poem.] When a man is tried, all the rungs and all holiness is taken from him. Stripped of everything he has attained, he stands face to face with G-d who is putting him to the test. -- Marondera, Zimbabwe
The kids and I sipped cokes till Zheke came back with his big cowboy hat pulled over his forehead. I'd saved him sadza and nyama and made sure he ate, hoping it would sober him up before our drive home. We piled into the back of his pickup truck and cruised the dirt roads, cruised until his brakes failed and we floated down a hill. G-d's grand test wasn't whether we held on as we spun off the road into a ditch, but came later |
when we stopped to buy the kids roasted corn and Zheke demanded I buy him a beer -- covered in mud, stripped of rungs and holiness, I stood trembling -- face to filthy face. ____ Ben Berman won the 2002 Erika Mumford Prize from the New England Poetry Club and was nominated for a 2006 Pushcart Prize. He has taught in Zimbabwe and currently teaches high school in Boston. 
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