In a book he called Thad Stem's First Reader, the author
recalls his first love, a young woman named Rose Blatz,
who taught him a few words of Yiddish, and whom he
characterizes fondly as the ninth candle of the Hanukkah
menorah. Of the ninth candle, Leo Rosten observes that it
stands taller than the rest, being the candle from which the
other eight candles are lit, one for each day of the feast,
and symbolizing that one can give love and light to others
without losing any of one's own radiance. Jessica is Shakespeare's
Jessica, in The Merchant of Venice, who might have had Andy
Statman's Flatbush Waltz in mind, when she said, "I am never
merry when I hear sweet music . . . ."

[In a doggerel rhythm, like a slow waltz]

Kings and queens in their limousines,
like these in their threadbare velveteens
were pearls that we stitched da da dum
da da dum
and now our dance is plain as boards
but our feet still turn as we sway, da da dum
we are sober as sawdust, flat as shirts
but we flame as we step, we shine, da da dum.

Dum da da dum two three dum each tink
of the mandolin drums to the fiddler's tune
curling and sad and sweet da da dum
like Hanukkah candles or wine from a spoon.
When in sweeps Jessica nee Rose Blatz
ninth of the candles, or first, da da dum,
she shines in full measure, out-darking the time,
the fiddle bow stitching up skeins of pearls
to the music she steps, da da dum da da dum.
Come along you squires, you easy riders
madonnas with chutzpah and pizzazz,
put an ear to the witness, eye to the shine,
put your foot, mark the music, it droppeth
like rain.

This sad sweet waltz is a journey somewhere--
beyond some long march, out past the last prayer,
the last mitzvah waiteth with Jessica there.

Dance is commanded, no wallflowers here,
they shall dance in Jerusalem all next year.

[Published in Windhover, January 2001]