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RICHARD FEIN Filling in Last Clues
The bottom left was unfinished.
Usually it was all done in an hour,
neatly and in ink.
But he never finished high school,
for he was the oldest child,
and my grandparents could hardly pay the rent,
so his wages became dollars per hour instead of A's and B's.
He was a cloth cutter, saved,
started a business, was called to war, survived,
drove a cab, started a new business, eked out a profit,
and supported my mother, my sisters and me.
He was called Sol,
a star in my eyes,
but actually short for Solomon, the indeed wise.
Even in battle he carried a dictionary,
for there were always new words to learn.
When I was little, my sisters and I would giggle,
when we'd overhear him reciting funny-sounding words.
Years later, I also recited some Shakespeare.
He'd do the New York Times crossword every evening,
a kind of daily devotion.
But the bottom left of the last one was unfinished.
After those final days
I filled in the lower left boxes.
It was my prayer of mourning.
It took me an entire day,
and I used pencil and made many messy erasures.
But I wasn't finished.
One final clue needed solving.
Under the ACROSS column I added this clue -
What Solomon was -
And under the puzzle boxes I drew more boxes
and filled in the answer:
S-C-H-O-L-A-R.
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