Elizabeth

Take back your black leviathan

your “Tiger Tiger burning [burning] bright”

And let this gentle creature

breath through earthly lungs another hour.

That’s how we prayed around your bed.

As your frail heart beat out its last tattoo

Until the morphine could no more

And we sat weeping in our impotence.

So Yitgadal v’yitkadash.

That’s just the way it is

V’yitnasei.

And so we laid our father down.

Where swiftly flows the gentle Garden State.

Oh Parkway, river of lost souls

Commuting onward through eternal night

Remember one who drove like you

And now lies dreaming in Elizabeth.