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Proverbs of My People

A man’s what he is, not what he used to be

Never pray for a new king

A job is fine but it takes too much time

To be on a secret’s no blessing

Proverbs of my people

Diamonds some jeweler said

If I’m like him who’ll be like me?

Love is sweet but goes best with bread

Friends you get free but enemies cost you

Too humble is really half proud

On a rich man’s face the scar’s no disgrace

Speak the truth!   but please not so loud

The hardest job’s unemployment

Most people’s boss is the worst

If you would fight those above you

get in with your equals first

Proverbs of my people

Age-old wisecracks that make me

A moment of cheer has a shadow of fear

Life is a dream... don’t wake me

Nobody bats a thousand

Nobody has no regrets

When you’re right nobody remembers

When you’re wrong nobody forgets

Proverbs of my people

One-liners you almost can feel

A tsertsin gemit iz shver tsum heyln

A wounded spirit isn’t easy to heal

* * *

1975

Song of the 6-Day War

Old John Bull got out just in time

Handed over Palestine

So unselfish just “take her she’s mine”

War had already started

Poor little Israel

Out from the jaws of doom

they made the land bloom

but who made room for them?

Golda says we come in peace

‘Our right to the property never did cease’

Two thousand years is a mighty long lease

But they got good lawyers

The Arabs don’t deserve the land

They left it mostly desert sand

And they’d rather live in nomad bands

than nice kibbutzes!

I’m sitting right here on the fence

Watching the scene, tryin to make sense

And when the US takes sides

I’ll tell you who I’m against

Sholom Aleichem!

* * *

1967

Deck the Halls

Fast away the old year passes

‘Nother bad one for the masses

With the glaciers melting faster

Than predicted a disaster

For the snow white polar bear

Don’t the motherfuckers care?

Don’t they talk about these topics

On their islands in the tropics?

* * *

2023

A Story you might have missed

Headline buried at the bottom of a lefthand page (said not to draw the eye as well as the righthand page): “US Prepares to Lift Ban on Sales of Offensive Weapons to Saudi Arabia.” The story explained, “President Biden imposed the ban two years ago amid concerns that U.S. weapons were being used against civilians in Yemen, where hundreds of thousands of people have died from airstrikes, fighting, disease and hunger as a Saudi-led military coalition waged war against an Iran-backed militia called the Houthis. The expected loosening of the limits — which blocked sales of major offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia — comes as the kingdom attempts to finalize a U.S.-backed peace accord with the Houthis.”

Add Two Words for one: Inner city for ghetto or slum. Underprivileged for poor. Refuse Disposal Area for dump… Two bumper stickers I’d like to see: “Debt is slavery by software” and “Israel is not the 51st State.”

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