I don’t think this is really a poem, but that’s how it came to me
The old antisemitic themes come to life
In my childhood, I thought antisemitism had died out after the Second World War
People were so appalled by the Nazis
It became unrespectable
Decent people didn’t engage in it
Bewildered, a few years ago I realized I was wrong (maybe I had never been right)
My students today tell me:
They had to contend with hateful pseudo-friends
joking about the Holocaust
throwing pennies at them
in Home Ec, trying to push one girl into an oven and calling her “Anne.”
Of course, scrawling many swastikas, everywhere
And why?
What is the pleasure in following someone around and calling them awful names?
What’s the fun in throwing coins at someone who was perhaps your friend?
Or asking someone if she has horns? (Yes, that also happened)
The intertwining of hatreds among
Jews, Latinos, immigrants, Black people, nonbinary people, trans people
Solidarity is intersectional, and so is hatred
I’m so angry
What can we do to change this?