A POEM BEGINNING WITH TWO LINES BY LIKHT
Ascent to the paradise of hearing, breath(e) hell
on the moulding of the dreamt ladder—
like dirt between our teeth
the smell of
words
angry &
bare
smacks of the streets they come from
where new & old
wares we sold
out to genteel tongues, dried & pickled
in casks what
we
drink first
taints our mouths,
but fails to raise us
further
once
the dream explodes
in shatnes smells &
boiling treyf
the dream explodes
in shatnes smells &
boiling treyf
over noodles
on the stove
a pork tongues
prayer & catfish
proverb carries
smell
of distant
holes & hovels
men in fur-trimmed hats
men in fur-trimmed hats
& cracked galoshes
in
pools of hot-cold
bathing babes
emerge toyvl’d
& ruddy
in muddy
in muddy
streets
oh little angels
oh little angels
arms slashed
at the wrists
opening their jaws &
craws
four crows gather
&
glean
w gentile-zionist
beaks,
not dreamt
– never never –
– never never –
far from any home
the home boy
the home boy
can confess to in the star-struck
fabled town
the first, the last shaygetz
alive surviving in basement-attics
on leaves of zhargon alone
w/ nowhere out
but the sky
I too
& you
in late or latterday
imaginings
to make a new
supreme surreal
& lonely (only)
jewish vaudeville
the archipelago actors
we
cast in
red string
across a chain-link stage
their teeth & tongues
wading in
mad galician mud
brought
wholesale
onto second avenue & kingdoms west
a world of cafeterias & stinky fishheads
scratchy records bouncing
on
their scratchy phonographs
from which the fathers fled
leaving a residue behind.
a lid vos heybt on mit tsvey shures fun likhtn
“kleter in
geher-gan-eden, otem-gehenem
oyf di laystlekh fun
dem oysgetroymtn layter — ”
vi shmutz
tsvishn undzere tseyn
dem geruf fun
verter
in ka’as
un naket
shmokst fun di gasn
fun vanen zey kimen
vu naye un alte
skhures mir hobn
farkoyft
oyf eydele
tsungen
geshpont un
aynge’esigte
in feslen vos
mir trinkn ershtns
trayft undzere moyln
nor farfelt undz
oyf-tsu-shteln
vayter amol
platst oyf dem troym
in shatnez gerukh
zidndikn trayf
iber lokshn
oyfn oyven
a khazer tsung
tfile un kats-fish
shprikhvort shlept
a gerukh fun vayte
griber un khatkes
mener in shtraymlekh
un geshponte
kaloshn
in baysenen fun
heys-kaltn
gebodnen bobeles
kimt aroys getoyvlt
un roytlekh
in geblotikte
gasn
oy kleyne
melokhim
arms tsugeshnaydet
oyfn hand-gelenken
ofenen dem kinbakn
un krofn
in klezmer khor
tsu vos hareyge geyt
nokh
fir kroen zamln ayn
un klaybn
mit ivanziuniyes
shnoblen
nit getroymt
- keyn mol nit -
vayt funem heym
der heym-bokher
ken zikh bavayzn
dem shtern-geshlogtn
gefabltn shtot
dem ershtns un letsn
shaygets
khay lebt iber
in unterstn-boydem
fun zshargon-bleter
aleyn
avek in ergetz nit
oys
nor himl
ikh oykhet,
un du
in der nokh oder
nokhteglekh
fantaziyes
tsu makhn a nayem
hekhstn suril
un eynzam nor
yidishn vodvil
di arkhipeligos
aktiyorn
hobn mir gevorfnt
in royte tsvirn
ariber a kaytikn
geshtelt
zeyere tsyen un
tsungn
durkhgeyn in
meshugenen
galitsianern bloteh
geshlept in groys
in sekent avenu
un malkhus vest
a gantse velt fun
kafeteries
un geshtunkenen
fishkep
geritsene
rekordirungen zikh berimen
oyf zeyere geritsene
fonografs
fun vanen di tatn
hobn geflien
gelozn iber an obzats
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