I loved to watch you as you sleep;
your breathing even deep and slow.
I loved to watch you as you dreamt
of places I can never go.
We read your stories, I heard your prayers
Then, touching the pillow, you drifted off
It seems like only yesterday,
but really it was long ago.

They swarm in the darkness of the night.
They ring my bell, they give a fright.
“Trick or Treat” They know the script.
Hand it over or we’ll pitch a fit.
My pumpkin empties as the hours pass,
It’s uncertain if my supply of Twix will last.
I dispense largesse to every tot
whether they are masked or not.
Covens gather and Mummies squeak
A sugar high is what they seek.

I’ll have the last laugh on those Trickers
I kept a fun sized bag of Snickers.

She was ninety seven; arthritic, nearly blind,
when a madman with a rifle took her life before her time.
She was praying in the synagogue and, with her dying breath,
She performed a Mitzvah- one that we must not forget.
She fell victim to a hatred that won’t seem to die out.
In Russia there were Pogroms; in Germany, Kristallnacht.
If we thought such hatred was extinct; that the ovens had gone cold
We underestimate the hatred that still smolders in men’s souls.
It sparked to life in Pittsburgh;Eleven lives it claimed.
Antisemitism's ugliness is now our nation’s shame.
As she lay there bleeding, awaiting her own end,
She whispered with her dying breath;

“No Lord, not again!”

A beautiful voice, heard ,but unseen,
called out to me from the fog draped shore.
I was captivated  by the Siren's song
that all advised me to ignore.

Odysseus, you were most wise,
to have yourself bound ere you heard her cries.
You were serenaded on the deep
yet managed  your original course to keep.  
I, less wise, diverted towards shore,
where rocks, submerged, have wrecked my bark.
Then, as a  whirlpool ****** me down,
saw the Siren laugh to see me drown.

How beautiful! How Cold! how cruel!
She shows no mercy to me, her fool.
Observe my fate and learn, dear Brother,
or the Siren's song will ****** another.

Some say the past does not exist.
We cannot venture there.
We cannot change what happened once,
Or redeem it with a prayer.
Yet what I am today descends
From all I used to be,
And those who claims to lack regrets
I view suspiciously.
Sometimes, at night, in slumber’s depths,
A long lost face I see.
In the light of other days
A while you bide with me.
I have the memory of your kisses;
Their sweetness I recall.
Then weep when daybreak draws me back
from when we had it all.

He did not want to join the club.
He never did apply.
When he learned about his membership,
his impulse was to cry.

With his membership came tests and fees.
The doctors bled him dry.
There were biopsies  and M.R.I's
Why me, he wondered, Why?

It seems his White blood cell count was up
while his platelet count was down.
He asked if there was any hope
but the White Coats merely frowned.

This club need not advertise
for fear that membership will drop.
New members join up every day
though all would rather not.

The woman, Miriam, had been caught in the act,
selling her favors; making cash on her back.
She was dragged to the square barely half dressed
and everyone knew what would be happening next.

She stared at the people who all gathered around
and watched as they picked up the stones from the ground.
She reeked of her sin as she cowered, half dressed,
one word from the priest and we'd stone her to death.

One word would be needed and then stones would fly
The ***** would be battered for sinners must die.
The pavement around her would be stained with red
God would be pleased that this woman was dead.

An Itinerant  rabbi was asked by the priest
if he would pronounce sentence, let the stones be unleashed.
He paused to consider, drawing lines in the dust,
then he spoke his decision about what was just.

"Let he from among you who is without sin
throw the first stone; let fly and begin."
Stones dropped from each hand as each did consider
the sins in our  own hearts and made us forgive her.

" Does no one condemn you?" he asked of the *****.
"Then neither do I, child, go, sin no more"















9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

11 “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”