Natalie and Ben and Ori and Eliora are King of the Jews on Tuesdays and Thursdays
on Sundays and Wednesdays.
They go to their King of the Jews Mall
and spend money at Sephora and Shake Shack.
They walk around in their Lululemon shorts and gold chains,
their homes in Roslindale and Newton and Brookline
and hold hands and pretend there is love
because there is love.
They talk about boys and girls and car washes and happiness
and get lonely with each other and far away
their Israeli counterparts are doing the same thing,
but not the same thing.
Natalie and Ben and Ori and Eliora are the suburban King of the Jews in an America
that does not like Jews
but they don’t care, these teenagers wearing their Jewish stars and chais
trying to fit in, never fitting in,
saying fuck you everyone
we are the King of the Jews
walking the aisles of CVS
buying hair products and paste-on nails and bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
while their Israeli counterparts listen to Asaf Avidan and dance
in the wake of sorrow and survival.
They are all kings, Natalie and Ben and Eliora and Ori,
late night FaceTiming and laughing and holding steady in their own secret sorrow
because what they know is that their Israeli counterparts
are their brothers and sisters no matter the music—
the Taylor Swift, the Noa Kirel the Bal Shem Tov Baruch Hashem
dancing done in the dust and fields of parking lots and desert daylight.
It’s a sad world.
It’s a beautiful world
and these kings make me feel like I am part of something that has nothing to do with me,
like my time has come and gone
and so I will pick them up in my little bent-out-of-shape Toyota
anywhere anytime
when they call and tell me they’ve run out of money, it’s late and they are tired
and can I get them,
they will be in front of the movie theater at Legacy Place,
right next to J.P. Licks
and the falafel street vendor, Moshe,
on some street in Jerusalem that I don’t know,
have never been, but don’t worry, I will find it,
I will come and get you.
Matthew Lippman is the author of six poetry collections, including We Are All Sleeping with Our Sneakers On and Mesmerizingly Sadly Beautiful (both from Four Way), the latter of which received the 2018 Levis Prize. Two more collections, King of the Jews (Ben Yehuda) and Cry Baby Cry (Four Way), are forthcoming.
Image: Ethan Hansen. Unsplash, 2023.
