4

Do you know how long it has been since a moral choice presented      itself

and the wrong choice was made

not two minutes

why is it not quiet between lightning and thunder as if someone      were asking

do you have other articulable feelings if so express them now

tragedy ensues

with a laser blast from the cockpit

the dangled finger of God makes contact

PLEASE CALL FOR SEVERAL THOUSAND PHYSICIANS      QUICKLY

11

What idiot sits in a metal chair by a tin fence

when the storm commences the mountains disappear

in a cloud of clouds the monsters reappear

the result is a remarkably diverse array of desert life

yellow rainlilies for one example

like all pleasures sleep has become a passion

of my father’s I remember we would live for these rains

years ago in Spain we’d walk into Alayor

in a downpour the old women under the shades

in dresses and black scarves would not lift one dark eyebrow

from their lacework not so much as a lisp of Catalonian greeting

and why be obliged with Franco not yet dead long enough

there was plenty of talk of how he’d murdered

Lorca among many others by ordering soldiers

to shoot point blank at their enemy on a back road at dawn

in the presence of their Lord

and the enemies many of them servants of culture set off

MORE OR LESS ON A FOOL’S JOURNEY

12

Inside the storm is like a long train ride

unable to afford a better class

you sit awake all night in a chair

time to time you make your way to the club car

then back to your dream

on on the train plunges maybe you hear music

the train would be headed for a beach town

or the signature nightmare of your people

a shower of darkness

these are extraordinary times

the Inquisition is a clusterfuck of the inner ear

ONE SHOULD NOT STAND IN FOR SOMEONE ELSE UNLESS      THE CHOICE IS CLEAR

23

The miller is charged to utter a prayer

when wheat and barley flour are ground

bulls and rams both milk and barley fed are sacrificed

the thighs being the prime cut

for this or that god the king eats

a scrap from the golden plate

then the tail goes to the metallurgist

the breast to the goldsmith

and the ribs to the weaver

the priest shall mix wine and good oil

he shall smear it on the door sockets of the gate to the sanctuary

the door shall not be shut

the first watch of the night shall prepare the golden tray

one starts the day thinking of marriage

and ends the day thinking of war

each chariot has a driver and a soldier

a battle–ax and a quiver of spears

after the running and shouting

if there is nothing

is there peace and quiet

the days are long in the desert

not much happens quickly

the most beautiful and well–built young men

have bowls put before them

of honeyed cream and black figs of a violet

less dark green than eggplant skin

and more black than blue and sweeter

than milk for the sacrifice

and after such wonder

that there is a world at all

the scribe has to send the police

TO DRAG RECRUITS FROM THEIR FAMILIES

24

The generally tender cuts of meat in the back of the animal

are forbidden by Jewish law such law

also forbids the consumption of the sciatic nerve

giving rise to long–stewed pot roasts of the forequarter

and that other classic forcemeat gefilte fish such humble meals

as meatballs could be prepared ahead and served

cold on the Sabbath during the trials of the Inquisition

the preparation of albondigas was presented as evidence

of secret Jewish practice the vast majority having long since fled

only Jews who remained in Spain

and converted to Catholicism

were put to trial rank justice if you will

that the reader may be more justly occasioned

to make inquisition of the truth on the operating table

before the membrane between waking and sleeping is cut

by drugs the surgeon’s fine straight teeth appear

like distant white cliffs where I am to be welcomed

as someone who can finally walk

to safety notwithstanding I am not one of the ones

who has chosen to leave nor am I willing

to stay behind as conditions worsen naturally there

is every difference in the world now versus then

with the divine intervention of science

as a way out rather than take what is coming

and I make no case whatever

for bravery it actually became all about my mother

and country in the sense of what one inherits

when there is no choice what one can choose

as a cripple for months I became obsessed

lest I judge those who converted rather than flee

feeling sorry for myself despite what I understood

must be real torture the pain of persecution for no reason

I knew my circumstance to be fundamentally different

yet I remained woefully who I was

having no practice no agency no law

I thought of truth as accessible with my nerves

make as speedy an Inquisition as thou canst into thy own state

o my master I get lucky the white cliffs fade

the room feels positively medieval do I observe

on the white bloodied apron the butcher wipe his knife

determinedly I hang from the meat hook where is my mother

shouting from telling me to bring the hose to do some watering

with everything so dry I hear them hosing down the charnel      house

when I awake I am walked out of the hospital the prodigal Jew

ON QUIVERING BONES IT MAKES A RINGING OF BELLS