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A place at the table
By Bradley Burston

It was late, maybe midnight
When we opened the door for Elijah
Fully expecting
Aunt Ida, in sable.
But it was Pharaoh that walked in to the wine and the whining
and asked for a seat at the little kids table
saying he had a few questions for us.

He said his son would have asked them
Had he been able to attend, that is,
had we not killed him.
But that was then, and they,
not we,
we hastened to mention,
and even they, one supposes, were decent of intention.

Our mother later insisted he'd been a perfect gentleman.
But for his beard,
and the bandages
he could have been one of us.
Oh, and except for the dust in the shake
of his hand
It isn't on all other nights, he began
that you toast the anniversary of a slaughter of lambs,
the painting of blood on the side of a door.
My son died Erev Pesach. What for?
To teach me my place? You didn't seen the look on his face
when the embalmers came to powder and pump and wrap him
into immortality.
They drained him like a crankcase.
You didn't see the look on his face.

But what of the faces whose traces you bear,
As a mirror bears ancestors
As if you were there
sandcrazy, sunblind, crowdcrazy, chainblind,
scared of the dark and the blood in the street
tired of freedom and nothing to eat
but half-baked masonry that tasted like sweat
aching to remember and afraid to forget
what slavery was like.
Admit it.
By the waters that parted you sat down and wept
when you remembered Goshen.

Once you were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt
and once, for a while, you were free.
But now you are masters with burdens more pressing
than dressing a desert in perfect triangles of mud.
You failed your God
when he sent a second flood
to make of a people, a Noah and more. What for?
Some thanks he got. A pawnshop in the wilderness.

"Let's see something in a god we can pen up and milk."
You needed that calf in its 14 carat clothes.
But just who were you fooling with the ring in its nose?

Tonight the celebration of the killing of lambs,
their blood dried to doorposts,
horseradish jam on the table it took you a week to set.
At least a week more, 'fore you get your digestion back right.
You couldn't leave Egypt if you wanted to tonight.

When they came to tell me about my son
in that dialect that doctors affect
the big words snaking past you like bad handwriting,
"In cases such as yours," they began, "let's speak frankly,
in cases of ... amputation,
it is not uncommon to encounter
the selfsame itches, burns, ticklishness
shooting as before from the direction of the ... amputee."
As if nothing had occurred.
As if I hadn't heard correctly.
As if he were still a part of me.

In cases such as mine, the good news is the area to which
the damage has been confined:
To my son, and another in every family in the land.
An extra place-setting at every household tonight,
except for the ones with the blood on the door.
What for? A lesson to mothers, drowning slowly in loss?
To fathers, who went quicker, strapped to chariots?
To horses, perhaps, their eyes bulging back against life, against sea.
And all so that you could be free.

Mine is the son unable to ask questions.
His is the blood in the libel of generations.
His, the wineglass untouched at the table.
His, the line that descends from Abel.
He will quietly crash your celebrations.
he will spike your festival punch with a vague taste of cracked glass.
Why on this night do you so carefully spill his blood
onto your best china?

Next year in Jerusalem,
or Hebron, or Shechem, don't say I didn't warn you
when playing the master has shaken and torn your dreams
to small sandy pieces.
Your God never did sell his property.
He only lets leases.
So shackle that promised land of yours.
Take, as your deed, your birth.
But know how much a promise is worth.
For once
you were promised
to me.


Gezer, Erev Pesach, 1979

_________________


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_______________



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  1.   Midda keneged Midda/ Measure for Measure 10:24  |  Joe 01/04/07
  2.   Brad, we take out wine so that our cups don`t "runneth over", not 11:35  |  Robert 01/04/07
  3.   Hag sameach! 12:02  |  Nik Miller 01/04/07
  4.   How could you wish each other Hag sameach..when 13:11  |  KA 01/04/07
  5.   bradley burston, i just want to say 13:15  |  eric 01/04/07
  6.   BRADLEY CAN YOU TELL US WHICH PHAROAH IT WAS ?? 13:43  |  paul harris 01/04/07
  7.   As much as the land of Goshen was fine for the Jews 15:10  |  Joseph E . Post 2 01/04/07
  8.   War-old men furthering their careers by sending young to die 15:11  |  Yossi Cronenberg 01/04/07
  9.   Is it worth dying for a corrupt country like Israel? 15:55  |  Rafa 01/04/07
  10.   Jews came from Africa 16:06  |  Tamir Gaza 01/04/07
  11.   #10 RELATED TO PHAROAH ?I KNOW ITS APRIL 1 TODAY BUT REALLY 17:13  |  paul harris 01/04/07
  12.   Hag Sameach and Happy Easter to Everyone 17:15  |  CHGODMK 01/04/07
  13.   KA: Reading Too Much Orhan Pamuk, Are We? 17:22  |  CHGODMK 01/04/07
  14.   As much as the land of Goshen was fine for the Jews 18:00  |  Joseph E . Post 1 01/04/07
  15.   Hebrews did not kill the first born, so what`s the point 20:09  |  McQueen 01/04/07
  16.   PASSOVER EXODUS NEVER HAPPENED 20:14  |  Muhammud al-Swain 01/04/07
  17.   rafa: Is it worth dying for a corrupt country 21:14  |  Randle Bate 01/04/07
  18.   #16 swaine the claim to the land is CALLED THE 1922 MANDATE 21:26  |  paul harris 01/04/07
  19.   INHUMAN TREATMENT HA HA HA 21:28  |  TOBIA 01/04/07
  20.   Next year in Jerusalem 21:45  |  sg 01/04/07
  21.   Mr Mohammed Swine 22:11  |  Jasmine Murphy 01/04/07
  22.   Hag sameah to everybody 22:28  |  Hastaroth 01/04/07
  23.   One more thing.... 22:32  |  Hastaroth 01/04/07
  24.   KA GIVE MODERN DAY EXAMPLE 22:36  |  TOBIA 01/04/07
  25.   KA,this is a Jewish newspaper 22:36  |  Hastaroth 01/04/07
  26.   #10 The best April fool joke ever 22:41  |  Hastaroth 01/04/07
  27.   Who`s to bless who`s to blame? 22:43  |  Billy Jack 01/04/07
  28.   # 4 KA 23:14  |  Lynn 01/04/07
  29.   al Swain from Dearbornistan 23:18  |  Lynn 01/04/07
  30.   Burston, you write poetry badly, BUT 23:20  |  d.dor 01/04/07
  31.   April Fool? 23:24  |  Joseph 01/04/07
  32.   # 8 benefits of war........ 23:24  |  Lynn 01/04/07
  33.   Tamir gaza 23:52  |  Danite 01/04/07
  34.   al swain 23:53  |  Danite 01/04/07
  35.   MOHOMMUD THANKS FOR THE FAIRY TALE 23:55  |  TOBIA 01/04/07
  36.   A HOLIDAY GREETING 23:59  |  BO 01/04/07
  37.   TO 26 00:03  |  crazy horse 02/04/07
  38.   Hag sameach 00:17  |  Simple Tom 02/04/07
  39.   Argue on behalf of a slaver 00:17  |  Efox 02/04/07
  40.   Message to the censor 00:28  |  Bradley Burston 02/04/07
  41.   re: Tamir Gaza 00:31  |  Efox 02/04/07
  42.   At least Bradley was sorry AFTER the fact 00:50  |  Tosefta 02/04/07
  43.   Mr. Al-Swain, read your Koran. It has the story of the Exodus! 01:06  |  Robert 02/04/07
  44.   Danite 01:54  |  Tamir Gaza 02/04/07
  45.   tamir gaza...an israelite saved egypt... 02:15  |  maria 02/04/07
  46.   hey al swain....moses was mentioned in the koran. 02:23  |  maria 02/04/07
  47.   TO THE HONORABLE MUSLIM WRITERS 02:29  |  PERITO 02/04/07
  48.   My Impersonation of an Ancient Egyptian 03:13  |  Efox 02/04/07
  49.   An Isrealite Saved the World 04:38  |  JRN 02/04/07
  50.   # 16 Al Swain 04:41  |  Lynn 02/04/07
  51.   #27 Billy Jack 04:42  |  Lynn 02/04/07
  52.   Thank you BO 04:48  |  Lynn 02/04/07
  53.   Tamir Gaza 06:25  |  Danite 02/04/07
  54.   THE MODERN PHARAOH AND ALL 08:18  |  indrajaya 02/04/07
  55.   Exodus and Passover are relevant today 08:56  |  Don 02/04/07
  56.   Brad wants us to be slaves? 09:25  |  Israeli 02/04/07
  57.   So,Burston feels sorry for the dead Egyptians 09:46  |  Hastaroth 02/04/07
  58.   Only Jewish slaves don`t have the RIGHTS of FREEDOM FIGHTERS? 10:45  |  Michigan 02/04/07
  59.   Passover 15:09  |  Deborah 02/04/07
  60.   indrajaya aren`t they free? 21:27  |  maria 02/04/07
  61.   don`t you know that.... 21:32  |  maria 02/04/07
  62.   Censor protects Koran but not Bible 22:34  |  Michigan 02/04/07
  63.   My favorite Jewish Holiday - Brad tks for explaining 22:45  |  Blinky the Fish 02/04/07
  64.   Our Passover is.... 04:15  |  Virginia 03/04/07
  65.   God`s plan revealed through the Jewish people 04:31  |  For ALL who believe 03/04/07
  66.   #8 Jossi Cronenberg BRAVO!! 06:33  |  hipolito 03/04/07
  67.   # 8 Yossi Cronenberg @ Jerusalem / Israel 11:12  |  Joseph .E 03/04/07
  68.   To Indrajaya 54 18:10  |  Lee 03/04/07
  69.   #50 LYNN 19:54  |  Muhammud al-Swain 03/04/07
  70.   To Muhamman al Swain re 69 22:50  |  Lee 03/04/07
  71.   69Muhammud: Prove it!