To Those Who Hate Us: A Jew’s Response
by Robert M. Katzman
Copyright December 1, 2022
We are so few
In most states
In most countries
People have never met us
Even one of us
Yet still
There are enough of us
To be despised by
Earth’s marauding savages
Relentlessly pursuing a
Lingering Biblical People
Descended from misty legends
Seemingly trapped in Time
We are the Jews
*
Despite losing a third of us
Six million
In World War Two
A million of the Burned:
Babies, children, crippled
Erased by
Ravenous, monstrous
Insatiable Beasts
*
Yet stubbornly
We remain
Increasing our numbers
Does not seem to be
Within our powers
*
What do we look like?
Look in your mirrors
We are
Black, White, Latino, Asian
Our hair is Red, Yellow, Brown, Black
Our eyes as random
And beautiful
As all the spectrum of light
We are Straight / Queer and every other sex
We are right, left, indifferent and crazy
Like everyone else
*
One of us
Will never be President
But America’s
Presidents have repeatedly
Called on
So many of us for
Our Perspectives about
Every complex arena of
A global Leader’s world:
Energy / Trade / Pandemics
Nuclear / Biological / Technology
Speeches / Immigration / Ecology
Human Nature / Human Rights
*
And frequently
Weighing morality
Within their
decision
A President may ponder
What is right?
Because what is right
Is never too faint
To be unseen
*
To the ignorant
Searching for conspiracy
To those who kill
Evidently believing and fearing
Jews are: Everywhere
Controlling: Everything
*
Though half of America’s States
Have less than 20,000 of us
In reality, still we are invisible
To most of America’s People
So strange, and yet
So many continue to hate
*
In the whole wide world
of
Eight Billion People
Jews, barely an asterisk
Total possibly 15 million
Within 195 Nations
Merely 18 Countries have
More than 20,000 Jews
177 countries have less
Or none at all
*
Where is our fearsome Army?
Why are we still here?
And above all:
What do the Jews believe?
Oh dear!
Such a question!
Perhaps
50 different Philosophies
Or nothing at all
God gave us free will
*
Over my so many decades
Friends and foes
Have asked of me
What are my own Jewish beliefs?
Justice and Mercy
I believe those two
Magnificent concepts
Covers enought of it
For me
*
Some curious souls may notice
Among 930
Civilization-advancing
Nobel Prize winners
208 were Jews
Out of a
World Population
Of nearly
Zero Per Cent
*
Perhaps someone, somewhere
— And this, only God knows —
Persists in believing
We are still essential
But how can that be?
*
So we linger on
Here and there
Seen and unseen
We fractious and fraction of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s
Ancient
Wandering Desert People
Through an endlessly
Ever more
Dangerous World
But I don’t believe in logic
I just Believe
*
What I have written
Are simmering words
Each person who
Reads my poem or shares it
Magnifies my message
Words can be like arrows
Well aimed, for either good or ill,
They can pierce a heart
As a ‘Person of the Book’,
I will not –
Cannot
Be still – or stilled
*
I see all these thoughts
These relentlessly
Numerical stanzas
All of them seeking
I suddenly realize
To reason with the insane
Now I understand
*
All these separate efforts
Seemingly like
Western covered wagons
Arrayed in a circle
Defensively
Against all comers
I don’t want to live this way
*
These 600 words
Typed or softly spoken
Are my invincible Army
Such an Army
Cannot be vanquished
*
Time
With or without me
Like an assaulting Chariot
A Vessel of my Words
Relentlessly
Assailing those who hate
We Jews
You will never win
***
Civilized comments welcome.
****************
Publishing News!
(Currently seeking representation as a speaker/poet for hire)
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: http://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1) $3.95; (2) $5.95; (3) $7.95; (4) $8.95 (5) $9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9) $13.95 (10) $15.95 (15) $19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools can call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.
My two latest books are available in the Racine Wis Public Library. Both books are labeled: 921 KAT. ROB on their spines, in autobiography Dept.
Signed Books are also for sale at:
Studio Moonfall Bookstore, 5031 7th St. Kenosha, Wis, email: hello@studiomoonfall