Poems
by KJ Hannah Greenberg

 

 

Like Stars in the Sky

 

The Jerusalem skyline, some tall buildings, mostly sandstone,

Occasional bright highway lights illuminating “important” folks.

 

Among the hills crowning this holiest of human capitals, music, prayer,

Likewise, the good rhythms of everyday life, elevate dwellers and visitors.

 

Yet, beneath the totality of this luminosity, under stars positioned by our Maker,

Darkness, memories of such savagery as ought not to be imaginable, grow rancid.

 

Not enough years ago, it was popular to embrace fear instead of faith,

To dog Am Yisrael wherever we settled, Europe sought a quick fix; genocide.

 

Murder, maiming, rape, horrible “scientific” experiments, together

Tormented our people, our lives, our unity, our hope for any time ahead.

 

Moshiach did not land soon enough; we became squeezed olives,

All of our oil dripping while entreating the Maker of constellations.

 

 

 

 

 

Select Taxons of Behavior

 

Some taxons of behaviors line up at troughs for evening meats,

Ignore those pastures where green grasses grow dolorous feels,

Stay clear of creeks tendering wee dissonances’ rounded angers,

Also, step away from salt licks spiced with prolix egocentrisms.

 

Alternatively, they rush to gulp down sweet ruminations, plus any

Inferences of information yielding pleasant thoughts, good deeds,

Random acts of kindness. Accordingly, such hurry to avoid most

Materialisms. Likewise, they circumvent fissures of wickedness.

 

Realize, the lushest forbs make mouthfeel that emulates decency.

Savvy people connect with family, aid friends, benefit affinities.

They generally sanction apprenticing selves to charitable doings,

To devoting lifetimes to trying to fix the world, even just a little.

 

 

 

 

 

Hospitality for a Star Traveler

 

Lacking his charisma, long since, additional creatures would have floundered.

Inversely, his belief in befriending unpopular people was scarcely appreciated.

Happenstance, though, had that outlander suffer neither anxiety nor allegiance.

It transpired, following his disintegration, kingpins auctioned his bits, his bobs,

Called up his fellow aliens to litigate, to protect our future, to restore antiquity,

While saying nothing of how we killed him. Unlike menacing races, we’re not

Burdened with righteousness. Indignation’s our satisfactory gateway for ample

Entitlement. We’re owed the universe’s best. When, on occasion, our weapons 

Quieten complicated sightseers, we suffer no hesitations, no pangs, no remorse.

Due to the star system’s trendy commuter route, humanity’s steadily rewarded.

Until such time as clinch fighting folds to scruffier mitts, hooves, and flippers,

“Paladins’” expeditions can’t save compound body parts, florescent eyestalks.

 

Few interplanetary travelers operate under heinousness; they’re truly biddable.

In fashioning no actual aspirations for conquest, he, equally, proffered pliance.

Because of some portentous events, plus amazing feats, we reacted ruthlessly.

As with every immigrant, his attraction had been measured in cosmic powder.

The wheeze in his voice, nonetheless, funded new spaceships, purchased pies,

Especially extravagances like rhubarb strawberry, or toasted coconut supreme.

Ultimately, that design spoke to our guts, sung inside our heads, reverberated.

Such peripatetic poetry leaked into dreams, caused our leaders assorted panic,

Produced inaccurate attribution, increased entomophobia, triggered inflation.

Interloper karma got champed by buddies, sipped by ladies, inhaled by tykes.

Poignantly, that popularity kept him from hitching home, revisiting his world,

From where odd handlers would have rewarded his return, soon destroyed us.

 

 

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