HANK
LAZER
RELIGION
the city didn’t
exist
going to
the country meant
ten minutes &
cows
my father’s
father the driver
a happy man
if so not
in a contemporary
american
sense he
with the given
name Chaim &
his wife Fanya
drove slowly with
a slight smile
they sang folk
songs in russian
&
in yiddish
*
the cows were
not far from
town
the big
city meant San
Francisco
on a
slow highway with
lots of stoplights
this would be
a sunday afternoon
in hebrew i
am told there
is no word
that means “religion”
for how or
why extract that
experience that emotion
from the surroundings
of everything else