In Girona
there's little's left to show
of the six centuries
of Jewish life that ended
so abruptly in 1492
the ruins of the synagogue
now a museum
a research library
since we Jews want to know
about our ancestors
and in the air
of the old Jewish quarter
some trace of Rabbi Moses
son of Nachman
learned kabbalist
Girona's most illustrious
defender of the faith
but what I found most moving
was the mikveh
with its long low lintel
and stone slabs
that granted access
to the pool
some five feet deep
where men and women
always separately
would enter to immerse
and purify themselves
now dimly lit
it seemed to glow with a faint light
less a reflection
than an emanation of the stone itself
as if the men and women
who had bathed there
had left behind an aura
holy light
I thought of Jacob's words
after he woke
from his prophetic dream
saying how God
is in this place
and only now I see it