The American Game

Gerry and Reuven Goldfarb

And holds hands with the ball,

Like a tragic alligator

Waiting for the secret fall…

Jimmy stands on second base

Taking peanuts from the crowd,

While Tony grins and shakes his bat

Gesticulating loud…

Jackie sprawls upon the ground

Attempting to steal home,

Waving his arms in a jumble of rags

That go all the way back to Rome —

How can you cruise when you know you might lose,

Though your history shows you can win?

Bush is down in Texas

And he waves his gun for quail;

Gates is in the CIA

And no one’s on his tail…

Goons murder Chico Mendes

As the forest disappears,

While rubber barons wring their hands,

Shed crocodile tears,

And cows for Macs and Whoppers graze

Where trees stood a million years,

Then hi-tech desperadoes

Blow an airplane from the sky,

And corpses litter Scotland’s lakes,

But no one can say why —

How can you cruise when you know you might lose,

Though your history shows you can win?

Berkeley, 1991, 2006; Tzfat, 2007