IMPERSONAL

The working kabbalist

resists the lure of

the personal. She

suspends interest

in the biblical list

of interdicted shellfish,

say, in order to

read the text another way.

It might seem to some

superficial to convert

letters to numerals

or in general refuse plot

in favor of dots or half circles;

it might easily seem

comical, how she

ignores an obviously

erotic tale except for

every third word,

rising for her like braille

for something vivid

as only the impersonal

can be—a crescent

bright as the moon,

a glimpse of a symmetry,

a message so vast

in its passage that

she must be utterly open

to an alien idea of person.