My Father's 20th Yahrzeit

It is my father’s yahrzeit;
The Hebrew calendar day
Upon which he died, 
Marked annually with
The doxology. In which

He may or may not have
Believed,  since,
As far as I know, he
Himself never chanted
The prayer. 

Nor did we talk in
Depth or detail about his
Belief or lack thereof
In the Infinite One.

Yet he bore a peculiar pride, 
Driving about on Shabbat,
Observing decked out and 
Behatted Jews walking

To shul.  They at least,
He’d proclaim, would 
Prolong the tribe’s
Presence on the earth. 

I never pressed him as
To why that so greatly
Mattered.  But it did;
And my perhaps-

Atheist dad was content
That I’d go to shul,
Even if he didn’t, 
Thinking, maybe, that I’d

Address the Divine Infinite
One on his behalf; or his kid’s
Behalf, or his grandkid’s behalf.
Or perhaps on the behalf of
The entire clan, ancestors
And descendents.

Regardless, it is his
Yahrzeit.  And I’ll say
Kaddish, and pray that his
Perhaps-atheist soul,
And those of his ancestors,
Will wend their ways to heaven.