roadside otherside Hebrew
mixed by guttural English
slapping people with words
outdoor syncopated collegiate lifestyle
suckin on too many cigarettes,
aging not new future generations ambivalent
while kibbutzim babies lithely surf beach postmodern waves,
and curly black haired pregnant Semitics gyre and hiphop
while the Mediterranean Sea sparkles indifferently
“ehhhhhhh” (searching for words):
witnessing this backgammon masterpiece,
this unveiling,
this harmonic convergence of Golda’s greatgrandchildren,
including me:
bearded disheveled wordsmith
20% tipper of yogurt granola waitresses
representing golden shekeled Rebecca masterpieces
yes, bearded me again
this time Reuven,
Judaic to the core,
inhaling these shuk masterpieces
where everyone’s a savant
here in this epitome of wonder,
where each walking lightbulb persists brilliantly
so please explain this audacious beauty
inherent to these crowds,
careless maniacal cousins set on cruise control:
who scat rap through piano teeth laughing
who hug one another with languages intimate
who drift between prayerbooks and Assyrian bluster
these people are all cousins
finely sculpted in Yemenite loveliness:
who sashay and sway strung out on techno rhythms
who are wired on Kabbalah with long black hair and Microsoft
who demand and protest for resolution for Gaza and Golan
whose exquisite two-tone accents blast the skylight middleast clarity
and who do not compromise:
with “you rain on us, we flood you” consciousness
so please this throng who continually foil their enemy’s ineptness,
who assume insulation and autonomy,
who seep straight out from multifarious Haifa beaches,
and who conjointly converge from all night Tel Aviv bars
Shabbos, Shabbat, Sabbath, Monday, Wednesday no difference,
elegantly and defiantly they were taught to recline in Pesach chairs,
a mass of characters who persist forward,
who solve their society’s humanistic puzzles on weekends
lifting and exalting the rest of us
far beyond our fears,
their dark fecund eyes all the while wide open,
kicking ass
embracing these colored lights
bluepurpleredorangegreen Sudanese eyes dazzling,
who bombard the European and American firstworld
with rosepetals and cutting-edge technology,
who to Shabbat or not to Shabbat,
and ultimately who squeeze Judaic juice
right down to its Abrahamic pulp
and all the while
there is celebrating
extinguishing, rebuilding, and planting
from those who deny and defy any suffering,
from those who feel the contemporary procreative exultation
right here in this city
buried fathoms deep inside this ground,
a straight-ahead defiance
mixed with an unabashed decadence
from the mods and preppies who sport psychedelic yarmulkes
while draining funky Israeli beers,
and ultimately from these suntanlotioned sunglassed soldiers
guarding this green desert,
who constantly wander coedly
sometimes pausing to inhale and revere
the cool embrace of their ancestors,
our descendants,
who like them were disembodied pilgrims
yet miraculously connected
to contemporary way-distant cousins like me
May 25, 2018
Tel Aviv/Port St. Lucie