gershon hepner Poems

I sing of Rahab, meaning “Broad, ”
not “innkeeper—she was a whore,
and very proud to be a bawd,
a fact that puritans abhor,
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If sexy women are appalled
by how you look since you are bald,
do not buy lotions that are sold
by charlatans, for you’ll be rolled.
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Did Elohim, with finish fetish,
create by being aleph-betish,
and did He hope with resh, shin, tav
to end this so-called labor love,
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Shorthand for trying
to put the clock back and to be
as in your twenties and to flee
all thoughts of dying,
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Oh, from your own true love I fear that you’re sailin’,
you are sailin’ away far from me in the mornin’,
and when you are gone, my true heart will start failin’,
and I’ll feel morose, and start mopin’ and mournin’.
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I ain’t gonna work on your farm no more
I ain’t gonna scrub all your floors,
I ain’t gonna take all your friends who ignore
what I do when they hide behind doors
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The bar that Manet painted at Folies-Bergère
portrays a working woman who is un-
exceptionable. She seems to have no special flair,
and does not concentrate on having fun
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Don’t dance me to the end of love, but dance
me to the place where it resumes as if beginning
anew, each time, with nothing left to chance
except the penalties that come from sinning.
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Al-Andalus not only proves
two cultures, Jewish and Islam,
can coexist-whatever moves
the branch that came from Abraham
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In theory we should engage
with four sons, whom I list below,
including, at the top the sage,
at bottom he who doesn’t know
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