gershon hepner Poems

The cult of the ineffable,
the mystic, cryptically hermetic,
implausible and laughable,
translated into the demotic,
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They’ve been drinking chocolate in
the canyons of the southwest. Chaco
is where the ritual would begin,
enhanced by peace-pipes of tobacco.
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Law, says Confucius, should only be used
to control all the ignorant masses
who lacking such guidance would all be confused
and behave like uncivilized asses,
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Though life may sadly be a vale of tears,
love, loyalty, and solidarity
bring it to laughter with three cherished cheers,
restoring to it popularity
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The dishes that Jews like,
though gentiles may have knocked them,
gefilte fish with chrein that’s sharp,
or liver that is chopped,
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Living poets, unacknowledged rump
of long parliaments of legislators,
produce material readers tend to dump
in paper landfills no incinerators
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“Don’t speak of that man! ” he said, unenticed
on his deathbed, not willing to share
his last time with a priest if he talked about Christ,
and he rests now in peace. Vive Voltaire!
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Life is to enjoy, take care,
for this may be your final hour;
feast the heart before despair
consumes what you do not devour.
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The victories that seem to please the gods
have problems when they seem to come to odds
with moral standards of a higher level
than that espoused by gods who give the devil
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Early morning when I’m feeling devilly,

I rise before cockcrow makes reveille,
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