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Sarah Ellis Apr 2011
The glint
in Miss Jessel’s hair
was so simple, so quick,
that I almost missed it,
like an answer to a riddle.
Suddenly, I cared about derivatives
even less.
So casual, how she tossed her strands,
and yet how cleverly she caught me.

It wrapped me up tight
in a cotton memory
of home, when I was nine,
beneath a fort of pillows
and hiding from the night.
Her glint of blonde hair now
was the light from my hall then
that peeked through my door
to tuck me in.

My parents’ shadows
walked across my bedroom wall
and I saw them in her hair
now, as if my past were a part of her body.
My father’s silhouette from twelve years ago
snuck in to Miss Jessel’s hair
as if he were going to bed
down the hall
in the nape of my teacher’s neck.
Seven Feb 2015
As soon as I stepped in
she took my hand
there she was staring at me with her big brown eyes.

I asked if she was happy
and she said that she was
How can someone
so fragile  and so small
be abandoned?

she may be stubborn
but she is loving
and as I said my good byes
I felt thankful for
giving me the chance
to at least show her
that someone cares.

She doesn't know a lot about the world yet
but she has experienced more than I have
I wish for her a family
that can love her incredibly.
Whenever the missus irks me or complains...
I tell her don't "Hock me in chinik" nor kvetch
before long tête-à-tête escalates in2 Kanipshin
whereby the Army National Guard gets called
World War III declared Bubbe rolled over like
Beethoven in his grave where re: posthumous
renown one hundred & ninety eight years ago
March 26, 1827, never stopped decomposing
which countless noteworthy creations rank as
the mark of a prodigy with chutzpah to return
from the grave as an incorporeal essence with
trademark shock of hair unwittingly impacted
young hearts of females that went into aflutter
unbeknownst to said lasses who would qualify
as "groupies" in the parlance of contemporary
fans, but little known fact that unassuming key
gifted musician counts teachers, including his
father, Christian Gottlob Neefe, Joseph Haydn,
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Antonio Salieri,
& Johann Schenk bridged gap tween Classical
and Romantic eras centuries after the onset of
Yiddish, whereby scholars dated origin of the
language to the 9th century, when Ashkenazim
emerged as a unique cultural entity in central
Europe, thus speculation abounds that lyrical
spine tingling pièce de résistance Ode to Joy -
a melody based on poem by Friedrich Schiller
celebrates the unity of humankind, which song
considered a European anthem and a symbol
of brotherhood, freedom, & equality impossible
mission undertaken by semitic people generally
& Jewish folks particularly even then countless
centuries before relatively contemporary nations
resembled present day geography formerly the
cradle of Yiddish, which owned the equivalent
of top ten hits on billboard chart for beginning
of gobsmacked world predating REM by quite
a large number of centuries construing seeds of
life & white lily inchoate harbingers of Borscht
Belt a region in the Catskill Mountains of New
York that was a popular summer destination for
Jewish Americans from the 1920s to the 1960s:
The area was also known as the "Jewish Alps,"
showcasing debut of many notable comedians
such as the following extensive dam charming
name dropping who brought down the house
analogous to Rolling Stones “Rock the Casbah.”

Abbott & Costello, Joey Adams, Woody Allen, Morey Amsterdam, Bea Arthur, Sandy Baron, Jack Benny, Milton Berle Shelley Berman, Joey Bishop, Mel Blanc, Victor Borge, Mel Brooks, Lenny Bruce, Burns & Allen Pesach Burstein, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, Jean Carroll, Jack Carter, Myron Cohen, Billy Crystal, Bill Dana, Rodney Dangerfield, Phyllis Diller, and the name dropping list continues with Totie Fields, Mickey Freeman, Betty Garrett, Estelle Getty, George Gobel, Shecky Greene, Buddy Hackett, George Jessel, Mickey Katz, Danny Kaye, Alan King, Robert Klein, Harvey Korman, Jack E. Leonard, Mal Z. Lawrence, Sam Levenson, Jerry Lewis, Richard Lewis, The Marx Brothers, Jackie Mason, Lou Menchell, Corbett Monica, Howard Morris, Zero Mostel, Jan Murray, Freddie Prinze Sr., Carl Reiner, Don Rickles, Joan Rivers, Freddie Roman, Rowan & Martin, Mort Sahl, Soupy Sales, **** Shawn, Allan Sherman, Phil Silvers, Arnold Stang, David Steinberg, Jerry Stiller, The Three Stooges, Jackie Vernon, Gene Wilder, Jonathan Winters, Ed Wynn, and Henny Youngman to cap off shortlisted personalities who guaranteed a crowded house.

— The End —