Three Poems

A Monorhyme for Miscegenation
(For YassAmir-Ebrahimi and Stuart Benis)

We all know what our elders warned
In their admonitory drone,

'Water and oil won't mix my child -
Play safe, stick staunchly to your own.'

And I concede they're half right when
I think of all the pairs I've known

(Black/White, Jew/Gentile, Moslem/Me '
The home-raised with the foreign-grown)

Mixed marriages, it's true, can make
Two lives a dire disaster zone.

But only half: since when they work
(As my luck, and my friends', has shown)

Their intricate accommodations
...