There is Joy in Miami today

And she’s getting married at Five.

I paid for the news

Because my lover called collect

From the Sunshine State.

 

Joy’s a bastard.

As a toddler, she chose a counselor

For her step-father

In a summer camp.

Carol, counselor/mother,

Jeff, counselor,

Concurred.

And they became family.

 

Moving to Miami

They became Unitarians

And have made a life.

And now Joy has again chosen.

And let us all say, “Mazel Tov!”

What else?

 

But my lover, Joy’s cousin,

Also said, in response to my long-distance queries,

“Joy was Jewish when she was younger.”

I now await my beloved’s return.

For there are questions around my heart and in my throat.

​

WHEN DID JOY STOP BEING JEWISH?

          I want to know exactly.

          I insist upon the time of day.

          I must know about the weather.

          (Sometimes it exerts a strong influence.)

          Or perhaps something in the Floridean atmosphere,

          The Canaveral/Kennedy launchings,

           (Holes punched through the ozone)

           Are a factor.

           And if so,

           Are all the Semitic seniors at risk?

           Are we all at risk?

 

WHEN DID WE STOP STARTING BEING JEWISH?

             Perhaps the boat-passage

             Over blue-gray North Atlantic seas

             Softened up our innards

             And we were already in no condition 

             For the ill-paved streets

             Awaiting us.

             Perhaps our 5,000 years of energy

             Petered out in the alley,

             On the tenement rooftop,

             Around the grand concourses,

             Through the suburbed grasses.

             Are we all at risk?

 

And perhaps,

I will ask my reporter/lover, expecting no answer,

“HOW DO WE . . .?”

 

  

    

                                                                                                   -    Jeffrey Eisenmesser, 1987

​

​