POETRY
SEASONALS
i. (Semi) Greetings
A winter solstice
mid-nonagenarian’s
half full of superb
long holiday cheer
blending alternate quiet
and family time.
ii. Christmas Morning
Each plum biscuit bit’s
so very gummy yummy
inside my tummy.
iii. Sobriety
Soon fatal disease
just diagnosed: upside’s can
fall off the wagon.
During Week Post Christmas: Staying On “As If” Basis With God*
Our son’s wife and one daughter’s husband have Christian mothers
which these days is somewhat unremarkable
unless your partner’s parents
were Orthodox Jews.
You’d think facts both kids love their spouses who are good moms
would make all the difference… but arriving
in each house where Xmas
trees remain prominent
takes a bit of luster off trying to celebrate Hanukkah with grandkids
but we plough through it without much trouble.
For me that’s not too hard
since Jesus was so cool.
*riffing off phrase in Peter Schjeldahl’s extraordinary “77 Sunset Me” in 23Dec19 New Yorker
REFLECTING ON CHINA’S ONCE ONE-CHILD NATION
i. A Chinese grandpa’d
celebrate my having all
six grandkids as boys.
ii. Most Village Family
Planners sterilize/abort
‘bout sixty thousand.
Abandoned newborns
got picked up by garbage men
well as bus drivers
for orphanages
trafficking to desperate
rich Americans.
When I saw preserved
fetuses it felt like they
were my own children.
iii. Becoming a dad
was almost like giving birth
to my memories.
Gerard Sarnat MD’s won prizes and authored HOMELESS CHRONICLES (2010), Disputes, 17s, Melting Ice King (2016); and been published by Review Berlin, Gargoyle, Oberlin, Brown, Stanford, Pomona, Harvard, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Free State Review, American Journal Of Poetry, Poetry Quarterly, Brooklyn Review, LA Review, San Francisco Magazine, San Antonio Review, Texas Review, New York Times plus Mount Analogue which selected KADDISH for distribution nationwide Inauguration Day. gerardsarnat.com
Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Pexels.com
