**This poem was written about watching my son walk to shul soon after I was divorced.
You’re walking to shul
Little child of mine
Forlorn and defenseless,
Vulnerable, age nine.
Alone, without father,
You walk down the road
All I see are your shoulders
Little shoulders, big load.
Little shoulders that carry
Much burden, much weight
Little shoulders, big burdens
Will your loneliness abate?
I stand there, and watch you
Wondering, who will receive
My child at shul doorway
Will he have a reprieve?
Will there be a kind man
A sensitive soul
Who will look at your shoulders
Shoulders that reveal all?
A person with insight
With humanity, compassion
A Rachman ben Rachman
Helping others his passion.
Will you walk up to my child
His shoulders embrace
Will you open his siddur
Assist in finding the place?
Or will you be feeling
Uncomfortable, ill at ease
Will you elect to turn your shoulders away
From the sight of my child alone and astray?
I stood in my doorway
On that balmy Friday night
Watching little shoulders
Walk out of my sight.
My child has grown now,
His shoulders are broad
His shoulders are empty
No tefillin straps hold.
No tzitzis to warm them
Those shoulders I love
No tzitzis caress them
They’re out in the cold.
What happened in shul
To my child I don’t know,
But you, my dear bretheren
Have a chance now to grow.
Little shoulders are walking
They’re all over town.
Tiny little shoulders
And head hanging down.
They come into your shul
And they sit down alone.
Little shoulders that need you
Be staunch now, be strong.
Fellow Jews, dear kind brothers
Please heed heartfelt plea
And help little shoulders
Little shoulders in need.
