Spinoza, Irene, Lenses
My friend Irene Lust had a real fur blanket,
big enough to cover both of us when we
pushed our cots together
decades ago at summer camp.
It was rescued from Berlin by her parents,
forced to flee in ’38.
Feeling cold on this winter day
despite a pile of quilts
cold as the snow where many years ago
I lost a silver bracelet
when sledding in Central Park with Irene,
I think of Spinoza the Lens-Grinder
expunged in 1656 by the Amsterdam rabbis
for favoring reason over faith,
a daring break from Jewish tradition,
which might upset the good Burghers
who welcomed Jews forced to flee
Portugal and Spain,
doctors, philosophers, financiers,
as long as they enriched the banks’ coffers
and kept their distance.
Bento, the name Spinoza preferred,
continued to celebrate reason
all the while grinding
the finest of lenses. Sharp enough
in my mind to find Irene, her fur blanket,
the bracelet, at least to hone
memory’s blunt edges.
| Barbara Lefcowitz |
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