Poem: To Scare the Devil

The reason the Jews blow the shofar

on Rosh Hashanah is to scare away

the devil, Father said. He doesn’t come back

until after Yom Kippur, which gives

the Jews a chance to cast away their sins.

If the devil was around during Yom Kippur,

he would catch our sins, and throw them

right back in our faces. Imagine getting hit

in the chin by the vanilla ice cream we swore

we didn’t eat. If there’s one thing every Jew

knows, it’s just because the devil is sinful,

doesn’t mean he has bad aim.

Hal Sirowitz is the author of five books of poetry: “Mother Said,” “My Therapist Said,” “Before, During & After,” “Father Said” and “Stray Cat Blues.” His work has been translated into 13 languages and has been on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and PBS’ “The United States of Poetry.” Garrison Keillor has read many of Sirowitz’s poems on NPR’s “The Writer’s Almanac.”