TOM MANDEL INNER CIRCLE OUT OF DOORS
A N N E X P R E S S 2 0 1 5
I can’t say much
about the place
he chose to be
buried almost 7
decades ago, I
don’t remember
where it is, only
he’s concealed
among Jews – I
do recall that
much & recol-
lect the poor
memorial, its 6
sides of stone
may be thought
each to indicate
a path through
weedy under-
growth, but none
remains. A
visitor finds its
inscription hard
to make out: if
those are words
on the stone? But
what visitor?
I’m here today
as you can see
(in memory or
in words) &
often for (al-
though no longer
told) as a child
stories about
the place – in
gestures as
much as, more
than, words –
absorbed me
fixing its loca-
tion & giving
me mine, since
when any
route I’m on
seems at some
point to inter-
sect a path I
might (will?)
take to find it
or even offer
a glimpse of
the marker, an-
other chance to
to struggle over
its inscription
but I doubt
there’s any
message: only
the wear of time
nothing erased
by it. Indeed
so overgrown is
the memorial by
now that often
I don’t notice
where I am for
some time or
at all. Of some
visits I learn in
retrospect – say
if the stone’s
shadow should
appear in memory
or vice versa
while of others
no doubt I’m
not meant to be
aware, for like
all stories this
one can accord
to its real only
to reveal his
decades as
they disappear.