Because we didn’t ask Abraham to do
anything we wouldn’t do ourselves.
We don’t owe him any explanation.
Let him think it’s revenge in advance
for when kids snitch on parents.
We know it’s a kid who kicked off
the Salem witch hunt. We knew Shylock’s
daughter ran off with his ducats, that
kids would accuse their mothers’
boyfriends of all kinds of crime to keep
them apart, then set fire to City Hall:
We already planned to replace it
with cheap dwellings all the way from
South Street to High. We knew revenge
in advance was a flimsy excuse.

Gerald Yelle has worked in restaurants, factories, schools and offices. His books include the bored, The Holyoke Diaries, and Dreaming Alone and with Others. His chapbooks include No Place I Would Rather Be and A Box of Rooms. He lives in Amherst, Mass.