Isaiah 46:11
I call from the East
A swift bird for My purpose
From a distant land
Taglit
This time, two Filipina sisters did not hide their play from the Immigration Police. They giggled at Central Bus Station soldiers, as if the Roof to Al-Aqsa had collapsed. I must confess, I had no clue what those illegal aliens were saying. All I know is they were blaming each other, denying me a Visa to the 12th planet.
Caregiver
You will grow tired of poetry. Of Gun Shows. Bolo Bravado. And then? I will grip the counterfeit knob [all invoke dust in this Copperhead Snakepit] as always, feigning blindness, the same portal Your handmaiden locked long ago, when Herr hair was reduced to Ashe and Bitter Melon. The Shih Tzu will bark at the dented door, in the shape of an inverted Vampire dagger, to remind me that I am not the One to kiss you goodnight nor did I abandon you beside the Garden State Parkway, only to greet me, now, buried beneath a sandstorm Dune. When I enter, Cocoa will cower, just like Black Pearl didn’t, and just like Rain (our Maltese in a Cancerous daze, peering down the dark, dark steps, unaware that the top floor weeps still) would, under the circumstances: I forgive you for allowing Cruelty Inn, but I am not a Stranger. Strange, my railroad totes drag on, yet the Coke bottle bulbs are solar-powered and should last, at the very least, until heartbreak.
Zen Asherism
Don’t think. Don’t
Blink. Listen:
The mouth is a razor.
The heart — still life;
Constrict Bod.
Clench fist.
Tighten Abs.
Let the dust settle
Into the handmaiden’s
Vacuum then
[Don’t forget
To breathe]
Walk
…
Mount Monashee
When I was small
I was River Phoenix
Memorizing My lines.
Now, I’m Kurt Cobain
Losing my voice.
From Seattle to Sunset Strip,
I descend the son of Machir.
In the beginning and the end,
There are titles and credits:
Death pawns our Sword,
Where there’s no room
For Wise Men.
Meat Offering
Americans bark languages, we don’t know.
Americans hear something beating…
Americans call it, “Heel.”
Guard Den
IV entered the garden;
Adam gazed and died.
Moses stared and got harmed.
Asher clipped the buds, before their time.
David entered in peace and exited in peace:
Four entered the Garden…
gov.ph/2012/11/22/infographic-filipino-population-in-israel
CR resides Upstate near New Square and Monsey. His poems have appeared in Alef: The NEXT Conversation, Asian Jewish Life, HaLapid ["the biannual publication of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies"], Jewnited Nations, Jews in ALL Hues, Kehila Magazine, My Jewish Learning, Temple Sinai's Kol HaNeshamah, ZEEK: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, among others. He has previously traveled to Israel, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Hebron, but would like to tour Haifa and Acre someday.
