Yehoshua November, American poet, born 1979. November, who was raised in a traditional Jewish home, became Chassidic in college and spent two years studying at the Lubavitch Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, New Jersey. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, November teaches writing at Rutgers University and Touro College.
EVEN WHEN I WAS YOUNG
Yehoshua November
Some Jews say
that a number of possible soul mates
await us in this world,
and depending on which way we turn,
we will meet one of the chosen.
When I was a student, my family lived
in many cities,
And in each city there was at least one girl
with long, dark eyelashes
or a tired voice that, over the phone,
seemed to hold the honey
of my redemption.
For, even then,
even as a boy,
I awaited your earth-like song,
the song that would send
the rest of the women
to redeem the destinies
of other strangers.