Jews at Christmas
“The interesting conversations
are those you never have.” –
“As a psychiatrist, I dispute that!
Only the conflicted gargle
of real life offers,
however sporadically, challenge and
insight. But I see your point:
my family, for instance,
is a vast machine for the production
of doctors and lawyers,
and sometimes, terribly, I want to mock them.” –
“Somebody,” says a woman,
“calls to have me listen
to a baby gurgle. It isn’t *my baby
and not especially interesting,
but I summon the proper responses.” –
“The system overall,”
a lawyer states, “is like poker.
You see your opponent
struggle to remain impassive
and not to pull a gun.
If he succeeds, you win,
however the hand goes.” –
“A gradual maturing,” says the shrink. –
“Well I, for one, am prepared
to leave at a moment’s notice!
Which doesn’t mean I’m packed
or even that I have a passport;
only that, when they come for me,
they won’t be unexpected.” –
“Meanwhile, you should enjoy!
though the movie was, of course,
inadequate, and this place has gone downhill.” –
“They always do. The chief delight
for me is *them – the cooks, the waiters,
for whom all whites are goyim.” –
“And if those ‘interesting’ conversations
occurred, would they satisfy?
You’d have to speak both parts,
however unexpected, however wise.” –
“They would, I think.
Anything would be better
than these streets, as vulgarly empty
as if a neutron bomb had struck
or the messiah had come.”
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