A Jewish Ending

A Jew paces the lip of the Pacific Sea.

In his ancient mind, this is the end of the world.

What brought him here?

Far from home;

In the enchanted West he appeared.

The Santa Ynez mountains might be Canaan’s hill-country.

But this pilgrimage has gone wrong,

A wandering too far.

Amnesia.

Squinting into the fading light,

He strains to recall fragments of story:

A ship, storm-tossed,

driven off course by the breath of a demon king.

Or was he drawn spell-bound by the sun,

As it slipped into its place of extinguishing?