The Mystic

Someone was always asking him the time
of day, expecting him to be precise;
another wanted nickles for a dime.
At table he was always asked to slice
the meat because he had a certain style
of carving to the bone with even strokes.
Each afternoon he walked a tortured mile,
at evening charmed the neighbors with his jokes.
And never thought to mention what he saw
scrawled on the office wall, or how the Jews
kept baiting him and howling for the law
while someone tuned from music to the news.
No use to press the mandate of a king
or tell them what he suffered every spring.