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Jay Michaelson is a writer and teacher who lives in New York City. He grew up in Tampa, Florida, and escaped to New York where he went on to earn his B.A. in English from Columbia. Jay holds a Masters in Religious Studies from Hebrew University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Jay is Chief Editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture. ? the question mark is erotic so open the exclamation mark jumps like a petulant child demanding but the ? is a scholar draped over his book or the davener bowing when you ask a question you tilt your head ever so slightly counter clockwise i can hear you now your voice becoming almost adolescent a little nasal twinge as you ask so acknowledging that you are part of more taking in information thinking even the word “ask” is beautiful like the word “later” which i love even if the question is commonplace, asking it opens you to be entered by something from me .The Yiddish Marionette Theater Dream When I grow up, I want to be a master of Yiddish Marionette Theater. I will put on marionette theater on the Lower East Side and I will say “Zolst vaksen tsibulas in dayn pupik.” And the children will laugh Because they will understand me And the language of my people will be thriving And Yiddish culture will be blossoming And we will play at Tonic And everyone will be happy. This poem is a numerological anagram. It was licensed to me as part of my redemption. It was incorporated into my repertoire When I channeled it from the dybbuk Of the Maharal of Prague. In Aramaic, it is numerically equivalent To the 72 letter name of God. When I grow up, I will be a master of Yiddish Marionette Theater. I will dance and sing and I will say “Zolst vaksen vie a tsibula, min kup in drayrd!” And the children will laugh And the boys and girls will dance And Yiddish culture will be thriving and my marionettes will be at Tonic and I will sweep my hair backwards and I will feel rapturous joy and I will be in a state of hitlavut and I will be a master of Yiddish Marionette Theater. My marionettes will reenact the parting of the red sea. I will stand again at Sinai. I will defeat Og, melech ha bashan. I will circle around Jericho, ignoring the casinos, and all the Palestinian flags, and I will perform anarchist marionette puppet theater in Yiddish in Ramallah in Ladino in Majd al Shams in Aramaic at Sharm al Sheikh and I will bring peace to the nations and the rivers will run full and global warming will stop and the children will laugh and I will chant the mystical alphabet of Abraham Abulafia and there will be applause in the heavenly spheres and Metatron will carry me through the palaces and the shimmering lights will shimmer and I will say “Zolst vaksen vie a tsibula min kup in drayrd!” .When you are studying you involuntarily open your mouth just a half an inch as if to drink up the juices of the text. .Dante Alighieri No way Dante Alighieri was a friend of the Jews. He was always telling us about his pasta, how delicious it was with shrimps, as if he didn't know, the liar. He would drive on the left side of the street, and say, "This is the way cultured people live," but they don't even drive on the left side in Italy. Dante Alighieri never played canasta in a social setting. He said he reserved it for special occasions. You always say "special" when you mean "retarded" these days. .Everything Everything creeps by unnoticed, like a small spider. Yet how good to hear the crickets, at night, when you are alone. Sound is quiet, and no man is there, beating against his heart his sins in time with the crickets. .I am checking you out on Simchas Torah Yes, I am checking you out on Simchas Torah. You are sweating, you are dancing, your breath stinks of vodka, Your white shirt is plastered to your chest, Its buttons are partly undone, You look like an entrant in a Yeshivish wet t-shirt contest. Yes, I am checking you out on Simchas Torah, Here, in this sweaty, beige-painted locker room shul, With our arms all around each other, circling, Like a yid rugby scrum around the Torah. I should not be looking at you this way, This reminder from the outside world That your erotic embrace is erotic That your hormones smell like hormones - I should leave you pure and bathing In the radiance of the shekhinah. But I am not a goddess, and you are not a righteous one, I am not a shepherd and you are not a sheep, I am the holy one incarnate and you are the holy one incarnate And we collide our symmetries Against the backdrop of blue velour. . sometimes when i am near you the words become primary you yawn and i see y a w n what a wonderful word - yawn the hebrew is so sudden: pihuq as if the jews are too busy rushing to the next thing to luxuriate in yawning my thesaurus has no synonyms for ‘yawn’ when i see your nose, i think ‘nose’ and then i think ‘this is your nose’ this and no other this is actually your nose with your skin and your cartilage and your skeletal structure and your parents’ genes and i think what a miracle that this nose exists here and that this is not a representation but you |
