Sephardim

Sephardim

Sephardi
smart like an Indian
crazy like an Arab

We do not fuck
our cousins
but we
cut
your throat

We are
Jewish enough
to be
hated
and not
Jewish enough
to be
loved.

Else they tell us we are not real Jews
or not really Jewish
and hate us

Fit for death
camps
Unfit for
solidarity,
milk and honey,
or
rights of passage.

We are
too brown
to be down
too white
to be tight

They have called
us
Conversos
Crypto-jews
Marranos
Pigs

We have
names like
Perec
Perez
Lucero
de Leon
Rivera
Castro.

You will miss us.

Ask
Jorge
if he is
a Jew
he ‘ll
say
no then
kill
you.

We survived
400
bloody
inquisitive
years
by excelling
in
deceit,
murder,
lies.

And only the best survived.

as picked over
as race horses
or slaves

killed with every sort of ingenuity

“Are you a Christian?”

You either lie good or die good
or go away.

You sell your home
or sell your soul.

you divorce God
and become
a priest

you fall
in love with
a Jewish nun.

You are excommunicated.
twice divorced.

You take your
bride to a
New Mexico

Your daughter
will abandon
her daughter.

You will be the father
of your grandchildren.

And your grandchild
is mother
to my
mother.

the old man
chose a shanty
over God
then
a piece
of ass
over both

and to think
my
dad’s
father
was
a bastard
child.

So I
eat shit
and
have
no
history
either

And
I
know
what
its like
to
be
a
nigger
too