Excerpts From Remarks Given by the Angel of History
at the Arch of Titus, October 9, 2025
I was there when Cain slew Abel,
I was present when Amalek savaged the Hebrews
fleeing Egypt. I embedded with Joshua’s army
during the conquest of Canaan, the defeat of 31 kings.
From beneath a cashew tree, I watched Saul’s troops
proscribe the Amalekites. I saw the Temple twice destroyed,
Judah taken in chains to Babylon -- and then again to Rome.
I have followed the cycles of war and retribution through the ages.
My own bleeding eyes witnessed the slaughter at Khyber.
I rode in the Crusades, stood in the crowds to watch the burnings
of the Inquisition. I was in Hebron 1929, Jerusalem 1936,
pressed into stinking cattle cars with the starving and diseased,
flew with the cloud-seeding ash at Treblinka and Chelmno,
sat in the rubble of Berlin.
As always – as ever – there is murmuring talk
of turning swords into ploughshares. We forget at our peril,
the opening lines of that misunderstood prophecy.
In the end of days, it declares, all nations will flow to God.
I have not seen the end; I do not see it now.
Redemption cannot be willed.
Redemption cannot be forced.
Let us hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
As we have done for some five millennia, my office
stands ready to assist. My door is open.
Jonathan Cohen lives in Norwalk, Connecticut. His poems have appeared SALT, Image, Cloudbank and I-70 Review, among others. He has published two chapbooks – Work Songs (Finishing Line Press) and Coffee for Meg (Kelsay Books).
Amethyst Review 