JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

After the devastation

of World War Three

and their second divorce

 

they moved underground

to separate apartments

between tectonic plates

 

their children shuttled

between east and west

momma bear to papa bear

 

until they were old enough

to leave home start

their own wars trying vainly

 

not to make the same mistakes

eating only at recommended restaurants

where the waiters changed

 

as waiters tend to change

first German Japanese

Korean Vietnamese and

 

finally any refugee who

hadn’t been born in New York

who’d had only one set of parents

 

one God, one psychoanalyst

who always greeted them like

old friends and showed them

 

to the same table their parents

had occupied

since Hiroshima