Jew Poem by gershon hepner

A famous poet and a critic,
Elysian, and yet mephitic,
So wise, and yet, as he would edit,
So prejudicially wrong-headed.

Both vigilant and theoretic,
More resonant than alphabetic,
However flatulent his bowels
He flaunted grammar and flat vowels.

With venom he despised a race
Whose name he spelt in lower case;
Did no one warn him in Missouri
His attitude was like the Führer?

“The jew is underneath the lot.”
Small case for Jew, a j with dot.
Two t’s on T. S. Eliot to cross,
Between them “selio” to toss

And feed the rats beneath the piles––
He bites and stings like wasps, and smiles.
Crossed t’s surround the “selio”,
A fence for fabbro miglior.

Inspired by:

The rats are underneath the piles.
The jew is underneath the lot.
Money in furs.

“Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar.” T. S. Eliot

© 1997 Gershon Hepner 3/11/97