Older?
“Grandpa, how come
You’re not older,
like a hundred?”
asked five-year-old Yehuda
On New Year’s Day.
Taken aback, I replied.
“And how come you’re not twenty?”
“Because I was only born
just five years ago.”
“And I was born
seventy-five years ago.”
“Oh, now I know,” he concluded.
But now I’m not so sure.
How do circumstances
So far back in time
Make me who I am today?
Perhaps only last New Year
I was born once more?
Perhaps I should take
Only one year at a time
Now that my birth has receded so far.
And how old, then,
My beloved State of Israel?
Remote circumstances,-
European Horror
Unheimlich orientals
Socialist arrogance
Ancient God-given grievances
Fumbling enemies,
Messianic aspirations,-
All rehearsed
Endlessly.
Can we become just
One new year old?