At her Junior High School graduation,
she sings alone
in front of the lot of us–

her voice soprano, surprising,
almost a woman’s. It is
the Our Father in French,

the new language
making her strange, out there,
fully fledged and

ready for anything. Sitting
together — her separated
mother and father — we can

hear the racket of traffic
shaking the main streets
of Jersey City as she sings

Deliver us from evil,
and I wonder can she see me
in the dark here, years

from belief, on the edge
of tears. It doesn’t matter. She
doesn’t miss a beat, keeps

in time, in tune, while into
our common silence I whisper,
Sing, love, sing your heart out!