The Shema
daily declaration of faith
recited according to Deuteronomy
“When you lie down and when you rise up”
regardless of age or gender.
Then Kaddish
the prayer for the dead
only recited by a minyan
ten male Jews past the age of bar mitzvah.
But I whispered it
even though there was no minyan
even though I was a girl
for Mama and Lázaro
not for Tata and Iser
not yet.
Prayers floated between my lips,
above the Koje,
over the Stube walls,
to the ceiling of the Block.
Gathered together
like cobwebs
in the rafters.