Irrigation Circles on the way to Denver
Imagine Hanukkah and Christmas
strung together on a rosary of beads
of endlessly profound onyx black,
one after the other.
Imagine geld for Mom and Dad
and toys for Billy and Sue!
Imagine the magic snows of Medical Denver
that melt off by ten A.M.
as we dreidel: tee-to-tum!
to tinker-toy clinics,
model train hospice,
and doll
and toy soldier
hospitals!
Where menorahs hang,
scissored from
construction paper,
colored in with crayon;
and green paper Christmas trees
with lights circular red
and asterisks of yellow.
Imagine an aeroplane from Detroit
from ancient aerodrome where
people dressed to the nines
and all was holiday flash!
The high and the mighty! -
cruising at thirty thou'
all the way to Magical Denver!
The early ice on the Mississipp'
cuts my barefoot eyes
like sun-light shards
that fell into
the embroidered carpet
of irrigated circle crops -
one after the other -
green laid-work of silk
on the back of Grandma's chair,
that my brother and I
knocked over
onto the floor
on Lakepointe Street...
and no one spoke for 20 minutes,
or more...
did we ever speak again?
De-iced planes
are like candy canes,
sugared in glucose curtain,
of that I am certain:
sweet aeroplanes!
It was a quick trip to Medical Denver,
not caring if I lived or died.
Go right down into those green circles
and we
would be
always together
for eternity!
Get up at three A.M.
drive to the airport;
but before that,
decorate the Christmas tree ahead
of time so it will be ready when we return
on Christmas Eve
or so;
but before that, I bought geld for the god-kids,
chocolate,
and forgot it;
melting in my pockets,
messing up my cashmere...
but before we did that,
we couldn't imagine how sick she was!
No...couldn't imagine anymore
before
but now we do.
Imagine
---------
notes
geld
Geld is Yiddish for "gold". Hanukah geld was gold for the kids, chocolate wrapped in gold foil.
If you do not disburse it to the children, it stays in your suit pockets with tragic results.
menorah
the candelabra for Hanukah
dreidel
a top with four faces, marked N -nichts, G-ganz, H-halb, and S-stell ein
tee-to-tum
the word "teetotum" used as a song or invocation. A teetotum is a top, of which the dreidel is an example.
Edgar Allen Poe had a story of a madhouse where an inhabitant spun in his frenzy like a "teetotum".
laid-work
a type of embroidery
Here we're talking about a chair with laid-work decoration on the front and back.
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