25 MARCH 1989, Page 28

Wherefore They Called These Days Purim The Book of Esther

9:26

I dreamt that I was Esther At a Purim carnival, And we strung up Haman high And his tears began to fall.

Revenge gaped like a pit As we danced upon its jaw; He seemed a very little louse For such a giant maw.

I was married to King Triumph And I wore a paper crown, And we formed a big procession Where the murderer hung down.

But the man upon the gallows Put on a strange disguise, For his face became his victims' And he looked down with their eyes; And hangman, judge and jury, And the percussion bands, Were Haman, as his tears Turned to blood upon our hands.

Gerda Mayer