Unknown faces in the street br And winter coming on. I br Stand in the last moments of br The city, no more a child, br Only a man, -- one who has br Looked upon his own nakedness br Without shame, and in defeat br Has seen nothing to bless. br Touched once, like a plum, I turned br Rotten in the meat, or like br The plum blossom I never br Saw, hard at the edges, burned br At the first entrance of life, br And so endured, unreckoned, br Untaken, with nothing to give. br The first Jew was God; the second br Denied him; I am alive.