The post-blessing list of relatives, 
he rattles them off like gunfire, a dozen 
patrimonial shots, then the second cousins, 
a battalion of great-aunts, neighbors 
and their battalion of great-aunts, 
heavy-breathing maiden names, fake passports, 
pseudonyms, kinky sobriquets, 
doppelgangers, father-ghosts, gilgul-treetops, 
alter-egos-separated-at-birth, nobel laureate stillborn pushing 
further and further back, rowing millions 
the peacock tail of the pie in which 
we notice ourselves and begin shouting, 
shouting, shouting like roosters and bears 
and dancing with situps Ukrainian style 
and the air is made out of Jewish names 
it's the shaker-shuckling-sugared-G-d-grilled tornado – 
 
that jumps inside the two-minute cup 
of the gebbai's mouth 
 
which closes 
 
and the man steps back, to the side of the bimah. 

Jake Marmer is a NYC poet, and managing editor of the Mima'amakim Journal of Jewish Art. His current artistic efforts are tightly focused on Frantic Turtle, the punk-jazz-poetry band. More info on that: http://www.myspace.com/franticturtle. He can be reached at jakemarmerATgmailDOTcom.