Old Friends

An old man tells his friend
(over the telephone) that
He is going to shule that
Evening it is a broken-
Down shule in a hostile
Black neighbourhood in Los
Angeles there is never even half a minyan
(ten men) the worshippers are old
The prayers are badly
Spoken, the place is draughty
And full of shabbiness
And lumbago the old man is
Inviting his friend to
Laugh with him over the wreck
Of a failed spiritual
Adventure, an adventure in which
Both of them once
Cherished the highest hopes but
His friend does not
Laugh his friend becomes Nachmanides, the
Bodhidharma, and St paul all
Rolled into one religious
Accountant "You should not have
Told me that you
Were going to shule you lose
All the merit you would have gained had you
Remained silent" What?
Merit? Silence? Who is the
Old man talking to?
That's rich his friend is
Rebuking him for boasting
About his piety, but he lets it go
(sort of) after
They say goodnight, the old man
Puts on his robes
Which don't fit so well now
That he's given up
Smoking there is an almost full
Bottle of Prozac on
His night table he bought the
Refill a couple of months ago
But almost immediately stopped taking
The pill it didn't work hardly anything works
Anymore you can't even tell your friend
(over the telephone) about your lumbago
Without getting a
Lecture at least his dentist
Didn't reproach him
When he went back last week after two years'
Absence and a rotting mouth which everyone
(dentist, assistant
Himself) could smell when the
Scraping started his dentist was
An old man too "Let's tackle this
" was all he said the old man ties
The strings of his robe and puts
On all the lights in the house
(so he won't get robbed again) he drives
Into the war zone, locking his
Doors on the way, and
He parks in the courtyard of the zendo
(it isn't really
A shule) eunice is there she's been there for
Twenty-five years "At my age
" I heard her say the other night
Something about how easily she catches
Cold now koyo is there i
Forget his Christian name
The fingers of his right hand
Are swollen from a cat
Bite infected he fumbles with
The incense eunice
Sneezes and coughs and hacks
A police helicopter
Drowns out the chanting the
Place is freezing just
The three of us the fluff
Is coming out of the
Cushion, just like the juice is
Coming out of this
Story, and I'm not pissed off
At you anymore either
Steve and what is more, old friend
You have a point you have a point