Mezuzah
The message is faded or not.
Not is significant
Not is life to be lived.
Not faded
With a kiss
In passing
in and out.
If the ink is thick I can
Yell at the guy reading his smart phone
On the tread mill
If it’s faded he’ll probably
Kick my ass.
That’s empirical
Nothing mystical.
Nothing mystical?
With a kiss
In passing
Into the therapist’s office
Who is not Jewish (rented from a Jew)
If the ink is fading
I needn’t go in,
If I knew that was the case.
Instead buy a coffee in a store
With a neutered doorpost.
Leave a 30% tip on $2.30
Drop a dollar on the smelly man
Who opens the door.
If the ink is thick
He won’t touch my hand
As I drop a buck in his.
If it’s faded
I’ll get the flu.
That’s empirical
Germ theory.
It’s Halloween
The man at the door stretches out an arm
To pry it open
Half a crucifixion pose
He’s wearing a Trump mask rubber
I notice
I don’t care
If the ink is thick
He’ll take off the mask
Tomorrow
Throw it out.
If it’s faded he won’t.
That’s empirical
Or bashert.
All in the Family
Booba said shandaa lot
When the outside white stone stairs
Were muddied and bruised.
The same shandaif my parents
Closed their sweet shop in 1940
Two years after buying it
Just because Hitler dropped bombs.
Shandaif a Jewish child married
A non Jew. People looked like stairs
But there was no cleaning or scrubbing
After that.
Booba spoke pigeon english
Never knowing a pigeon is a dove,
Or birds are dinosaurs.