A Prose Poem: by Hank Kalet
1.
Israeli missiles pound Gaza. Tanks roll in Syria. I saw the same thing on TV when
I was eleven. Richard Nixon was president. The Mets were in the World Series. I was getting my haircut.
2.
It was the head of the year. We broke the fast with white fish and lox. Went to
synagogue. Played football outside in our suits.
3.
In the Series, Bando hits a fly ball over Don Hahn’s head. The A’s win.
4.
Agnew resigns. Nixon fires Cox, announces: “I am not a crook.” He lied.
5.
The head of the year. We learned that god makes us pass before him in judgment
like sheep as he inscribes his verdict in the Book of Chronicles, our fate for the
new year pre-determined for past sins on the Day of Atonement. I must have fasted.
6.
My dad did.
7.
I stopped. Fasting. Going to synagogue. Believing what I was told. That was later.
8.
Israeli tanks roll into Lebanon. Thousands are slaughtered in refugee camps. The
defense minister smiles and claims victory. The congregation cheers. I couldn’t go
back. I was not a sheep.
9.
Reagan was president. Marines were in the Middle East. Nearly 300 died when a
car bomb exploded. Keith’s brother was one of them.
10.
It was a despicable act, Reagan said. Unprovoked, he said. We retaliated. A
month before we’d lobbed missiles into Lebananese mountain villages.
11.
Reagan lied. Carter lied. Nixon lied. They all lie.
12.
Clinton lied. He got a blow job and was impeached. Bush lied and started a war.
13.
Were I to run for office, would it matter that I’d inhaled? That I’d shoplifted a copy of Visions of Cody from the mall bookstore when I was 20? That, in middle age, I’ve grown cautious to a fault?
14.
Have I grown sheep-like?
15.
I am free to behave as a “fool or a machine.” To choose, as Sartre said, “is to affirm at the same time the value of what we choose, because we can never choose evil.”
16.
What if I flip a quarter?
17.
The Puritans preached pre-determination. Prosperity proves the goodness with which we were born. The poor are poor in body and soul. It is all in god’s plan.
18.
Such bullshit.
19.
When she drowned her kids in the tub, was it god’s plan? Was that god’s will packed into Dahmer’s freezer?
20.
Bodies are dragged from marshes in Staten Island. The pier is gone in Seaside Heights. There is no gas and men fight in long lines as their cars idle on fumes.
21.
Sartre can’t be right.
22.
We are past the head of the year. On whom will god pass judgment?
23.
Eve bit into the apple, as I do now. She was roused by the sweet meat beneath its smooth, red skin. I wipe a dribble of juice from my lips. There is no serpent here.
Originally published at www.storehouse.co.