Benjamin Ivry
Originally published in The Evergreen Review Issue 104 in 2001.
The NYPD, feeling blue,
pumps an apostolic number of bullets
into a Hisdic Jew.
shofar to sefer to Safir
resounds the Kaddish for a Maccabee,
who raised a hammer
for all to see, in a sketch
shown on Eyewitness TV --
a virtual Chagall, Jesus as Jew, mad
danger to the community.
Wash your hands in a golden bowl
and dream your food dream,
Mrs. Pilate, Hot-Lips Houlihan
of the Cuisine Channel, wife to a skull.
Wag your innocent behind
as Icarus crashes in Borough Park.
For an elephant that steps on a mine
may rate a stun-gun in Bangkok, but
hereabouts bullets
are round and real and dark.
