gershon hepner Poems

Cortés identified with Quetzalcóatl,
We think we know the story, but don’t know it all.
In writing stories of the people whom we vanquish,
how can we understand king Montezuma’s anguish?
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Lurking in the ampersand
lies the symbol of combining
one and one, which hand in hand
makes two by means of intertwinin.
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Face being who you are,
Søren Kierkegaard declared, for being you will change
the one you are, the avatar
of all the things that you can do, if they are in your range.
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JERUSALEM AFTER CONSTANTINE

When after Constantine the Christians spurned
the Temple site where Roman vandals burned
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Before guys notice clothes and legs and décolleté
they pay attention to a woman's lips,
and they're painted they will try to find a way
to check their taste before she even strips.
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IT'S NECESSARY TO TALK ABOUT THE TREES


It's necessary to talk about the trees
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A taste as old as cold, cold water,
don’t put them in long drinks, but shorter,
martinis or a Bloody Mary.
They clear the head and make it airy,
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Three matriarchs appeared quite sterile,
Sarah and Rebekkah and
young Rachel who, though fair, was feral
when Jacob worked to seek her hand.
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Funerals and weddings are about
the family you’re embarrassed to belong to;
as soon as arrive you’re filled with doubt,
and wish to leave, but know it would be wrong to.
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Laertes thinks her madness is felonious,
at Hamlet taking peevishly pot-shots,
recalling his own paths called by Polonius
primrose, while she picks forget-me-nots.
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