I was asked to read a poem called "The Israeli Navy."
I should explain that when I wrote it,
quite a number of years ago.
I didn't know if there was or wasn't an Israeli Navy.
Turns out there is.
But I was thinking for what it's worth,
I was thinking of a much older Israeli Navy.
One that would have lived in quote unquote, biblical times.
When the world as we knew it was flat.
"The Israeli Navy."
Sailing to the end of the world.
Stocked with grain and books black with God's verse.
Turned back rather than sail on the Sabbath.
Six days was the consensus, was enough for anyone.
So, the world it was concluded with three days wide,
in each direction.
Allowing three days back.
And Saturdays were given over to keeping close.
While Sundays the Navy all decked out
in white and many colored skull caps.
Would sail furiously trying to go off the deep end.
Yo ho ho, would say the sailors, for six days.
While on the shore their women moaned.
For years their boats were slow and all show.
And they turned into families on the only land they knew.