Yeshu the Hasid

Michael Peach

(Dedicated to Geza Vermes)

A rambling rose amongst the weeds,
He twined his florid tales with deeds.

Jerusalem
25 March 1999

Like all the kindest men’s in history, Will’s anima was

In his sonnets Will’s narrator loves a manPlatonically; for he’s

How ironic and poetically just That the blatant ethnic-cleansing And

Could anything ever persuade The fatalistic fundamentalists, Who literalize and

If the complex causes of the catalytic Sado-masochistic syndrome Of

Let’s be straight. Although you deny it, In practice you’ve