Different Slants

So, I’m this old new guy

In an old

Small Town

In a big new state

I joined a poet’s group

Nice woman there

Carefully looks me over

Figures out

That Hanukkah

Is possibly my holiday

Clever woman

Then she leans over to me

And whispers:

“There’s this tiny Jewish cemetery

In a mostly

Christian Town

Near here

And their red steel

Entrance sign

With its big Jewish star

Collapsed on the ground

In the mud

Makes me feel bad

It’s not right

Maybe you can fix it”

***

I backed up from her whisper

A righteous Christian

If ever there was one

Does she think I somehow

Have magic powers

Able to lift steel girders

With a wink and a prayer??

***

(Read on …)

On the Impossibility of Hope

By Robert M. Katzman © January 4, 2016 

***

Sometimes nothing works out

You live your life

Hope for friends

Hope to be healthy

Hope to be happy

And

(a really big hope)

Try to fall in love

With someone as they are

***

And, in turn

Be loved as you are

You, without disguises

You, sometimes without a clue

You, with no idea where you are going

You, more than a little

Shy of visionary

You, without the certainty

Of

Knowing what to offer

(Read on …)