gershon hepner Poems

Harassment is wrong, every worker expects
her employer to leave her alone,
not making advances and asking for sex,
maintaining a high moral tone.
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She climbs the mountains without shoes
and as she sees the summit
she sings a theme, afraid to lose
her way. She hears me hum it,
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If you want to build a mega-mansion,
try to spoil an area that’s exclusive,
it’s most American to flout expansion:
don’t hesitate because you are abusive
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They said: “We must get rid of him.”
in jealousy and hate
they wished to tear him limb from limb,
but two of them said: “Wait! ”
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One hundred fifty years for Madoff
are surely an untimely trade-off
for billions that he ripped off traders,
abetted by his trading aiders
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You do not hold a grudge for long
if you are an agnostic,
and think that no one can be wrong,
with no need to be caustic
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What’s absent in the picture counts
as much as what is present and portrayed.
Like unvoiced words we can’t pronounce,
its lasting after-image does not fade,
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Accepting evil because God
moves in a most mysterious way
appears to me extremely odd.
More likely is: He’s gone away
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Leaning into afternoons I cast
my nets into your eyes, because I wish
the feelings that I hold for you to last
far longer than the flavor of a fish.
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'Will there be another holocaust? '
they asked the Rebbe of Lubavitch.
For an answer he was never lost.
“Of course there will be. Man is savage.”
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