Because the kingdecrees that every Jewmust buy his wedding-rightin unsold porcelainfrom the royal chinaworks,here he stands, an amorous Jew,gazing at luminoussuns and moons arrayedon doths of velvet-blue,earth that has married fire twice,that has been shaped and namedfor what it comprehends: sherbets, salads,gravies, desserts. He lifts a platter fineas alabaster in cathedral windows:salvation, the passage of lightthrough bone.
Ah, butnot for you, the store-man says.
Closeted, in shipping cratesare pieces no one else will buybaboon fops in feathered caps,chimpanzees in petticoats.
Visitors will later testify,his home was comfortable,despite the china apespeering from every corner.