AMANDA NADELBERG
PANCRAZIO
I went to church
with my friend in
Gramercy Park and
it was a slow hour.
I'm too Jewish
to receive communion.
She says the big
difference between
church and temple
is that Catholics keep
their coats on and
Jews take them off.
She fell asleep in
the pew, coat on like a
sleeping bag. Mine
was off and beside me.
When they kneeled I sat
as far forward as I
could so the man
behind me couldn’t
rest his praying head
on my back. I’m also
too Jewish to kneel.
Just to think that
people keeping their
coats on and Jesus,
etc., comes from so
many years of people
taking their jackets
off and hanging them
up in coat rooms.
Sometimes I am
so unlike myself.
A big runny nose
walks around a city
nobody likes him.
The nose falls in the
market and no one
picks him up. Just like
that Jesus, everybody
hates me.