Non sequiturs: the opposite of slogans.
Heydrich, praised by Hitler himself as having
An “iron heart,” was also a good musician.
When I was a child I learned to think what now
I don’t: that I have offended God by eating
Taiwanese dumplings of pork and Chinese cabbage.
Heart of the Einsatzgruppen and Kristallnacht.
Brian Donlevy, in the fictional movie
Hangmen Also Die, plays Heydrich’s assassin.
Zippy the Pinhead makes what I mean by meaning.
The Hollywood story was, an average guy
Would show up on the set and when he put on
The girdle and the hairpiece—Brian Donlevy!
That Heydrich was kind of Jewish was likely a lie
Spread by his enemies. In The Great McGinty
Donlevy and Akim Tamaroff are truly great
In a Preston Sturges or Zippy way. Good
And evil. Corruption, invention. This and that.
When I was a child I thought that praying aloud
Confirmed a power beyond the page or myself.
The Torah has no vowels. For me that meant
My howling or grunting voice was a sacrifice
Consumed by the shaping flames of consonants
To attain the sacred embodiment of meaning.
—Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky’s most recent book of poetry is Proverbs of Limbo.