newark
nj
1963
i stood in the draft board
i was
98 lbs
pigtailed, silver fish ear ringed
gold lame’ coat
then i was naked
all those crew cut guys yelling
“sweetheart! hey sweetheart!
—how do people like him survive ??”
but i was naked
& my dick was average
your typical run of the mill medium sized Jewish dick
the sergeant
sat looking at my records
his forehead pushed up
like a washboard road
“what do you do for a living?”
“imma jazz poet”
“where doya work?”
“greenwich village”
“section 10—GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!”
i was the second person rejected from
military service that day,
the first person rejected down at section 10
was my old grade school buddy, konrad nubler
who i wasn’t supposed to hang out with back then
because i was Jewish & his family was from germany
but he was my first friend
& i showed him my circumcision
& he taught me how to eat bacon
later he wrote a thesis on what he called
nazi-americanism &
was promptly booted from school
konnie was dressed in a sandra dee skirt
an annette funicello hairdo
& a joan crawford dinner jacket
&
i had pig tails
gold lame’ coat
silver fish ear rings
we sat there
the 2 of us
down in section 10
the first 2 rejectees that yr
in the state
laughing
&
talking up the old times
while the boys howled & hooted “sweetheart! sweetheart!!”
on the way to the green buses
This article appears in January 2009.
