Max Reif Poems

I wrote it yesterday,
felt it stop the press of Time
till satisfaction,
sweet like after making love,
...

The sledge-hammer came down very early,
and I was shanghied into life.
I wake up at 58, thinking
'but I thought I was 21! '
...

I long to walk the world
without a single care,
down every street in innocence,
entranced by ordinary miracles —
...

A cup of chai,
An outdoor table
Sheltered from
The rain,
...

The laws of kinship and membership
that applied to the tribes of the stone age
have now made the leap to the Internet—
remaining as binding as ever!
...

On a baseball team
after 45 years —
not even baseball, really,
its handicapped cousin,
...

Why did we do all that? What were we looking for
When we stood conspicuously outside our cars on summer nights
In our madras shirts, white levis and loafers without socks
Along the parking diagonals in the median lane of Balson
...

Don't be fooled, a habit
is a horse that's been tamed.
When you're heading
through dense woods,
...

Today they're pulling the settlers out of Gaza,
people whose strong beliefs in their Destiny
won't stop the bulldozers now at their front doors,
...

Their bedroom lay in perfect symmetry,
A mythic stage. The double bed was flanked
on each side by a dresser, lamp and closet.
She'd spout her lines from her side, he from his.
...