You Can Petition The Lord With Prayer

Petition Por Barbara: mi Madre es tu Madre.
Andy Hall
Eng 447
2-6-08

Jesus Christ, the Jew, so Jewish he stands around handing out socialists pamphlets and singing folk songs on Washington Square, smoking reefers, drinking matzohball soup, and masturbating, of course. Protect my mother, Barbara Louise Schwartz from memories of
Marion Simon, Diabetes, Cancer, her Own Driving, Republicans
Pain, other drivers, Just a dry heat, weight gain, boring television,
death, futility, my whining, and bad cell phone service, atomic warfare, 100 foot tidal waves, earthquakes
the million tornadoes
Barbara Louise Schwartz Hall one time resident of
New York, descended from Romanian, Hungarian Gypsy Maggar Jews, resident of New Jersey, Ithica, Troy, New Jersey, White Plains, Enid, San Diego, Austin, New Orleans, LA, Rochester,
Then employee of Sibley's Dept. Store, YWCA, George Eastman House, UNLV Promotor of the Arts, cleaning bedpans and PR bosses bowels, you know... other people's BS.
Now situated in Las Vegas, Anasazi Hummingbird Palatial Estate, Paradise Valley, Du
plex, near Liberace Museum. &
Retired
Mother of Katie, the Chihuahua of Love.
spends time knitting scarves, Writing, working the food pantry at the Methodist church, watching Jon Stewart and Hardball.
She who receiveth sustenance from Colorado and Virgin rivers, and the Flamingo Wash, what little that still flow &
Lake Mead, Lake Powell, all drying up with global warming
sits near trees of Apricot, Olive, Ponderosa, Bristlecone, Joshua, Juniper
rolls in a 95 offwhite Toyota Tercel
one time Stephen Minister to Pauline who was 95 back in 95.
Breadwinner for our family when dad was out of work
Survivor of Aphasia, Hyperglycemia, Lymphnodes, bladder infection, depression, contusion, Breast cancer, and eyehandcoordination disorder, flat footedness, and the Vietnam War at home.
Passerdown of all the above and triple dose of Anxiety and sloppy joe.
Possessor of Broca's Penis, Smegma, Mons Venus,Carotid Artery-Fovea, Anal Spinchter Co Dependency
Maker of Eggplant, Kruegel, Rum Cake, and seeker of lost keys
Cantor of Haboobs, barometric, compression, Hanger-outer with Dick Farina who plastered his apartment with rejection letters, then died in a motorcycle accident the day his book came out. Folkmusic buff
Kid who went to see Vertigo, then flew to Frisco, retracing Jimmie Stewart’s steps in Vertigo
Dated Drew Dillon, then dated my Dad who sang Johnny Cash, drank beer, watched football, had a job, and was not Jewish, nor an actor.
You blizzard America, tornado the hair, oh goddies of goddies, let us tornado all hair follicles
& yowl to the prairie dog, soup of tortoise, hedgehog theo
logia, rabbits in the pouring el nino, chipmunk punk
Mastadon, Brasicles, TREX , Paul Bunyan's toes
Begonia, dandelions, posies, daffodils, lilacs, calyxes, sypingeas- Canyon creek lillytoad
Your garden is full of this and more (and a signed copy of Marianne Moore's Collected Poems)

God keep ye safe, and warm, and full of port
May their be red headed Texans to fuck the irish into you
Barbara Louise Schwartz
Mom among Moms, Mistress of momness, Mighty Mere,
Object of my Oedipal longings, unconscious, of course
Ah Mother,
you madre of the montanas
milkbreast provider of me and two
boys who bleed matzoh ball soup
and brie... touché mama, touché
but you are not just mother
but the driver of the car,
the payer of the movies
provider of pizza
who drove me to the store
for Pringles
and Stouffer's Pizza
and half gallon containers
of ice cream... You did all this for me
but you gave me life, and for that
I forgive you... You gave me my Jewieness
and Hitler thanks you too!

Funny how you converted from Atheism
to Christianity in the 60s,
and had me baptized in the same church Reagan went to
but you were always a liberal
and the religious right was never your thing
Lord God above, Jesus Christ, protect her from the religious nuts.

You who survived having a homeless child, alcoholic husband, breast cancer, diabetes, poor coordination, bad handwriting, mean bosses, and Enid Oklahoma. Lord, thank you for getting us out of Enid... don't send any of us back there again. Enid, the End of the world, with an I in it... Land of Oil, racism, and gun barrel Religion... Protect us all from that Enid. Give me the Enid of Innocence, the Our Lady of the Enid of Naiveté, the Enid of the Imagination.... Or better yet, keep us out of there altogether...

And your father drove off a cliff, without a spiritual life
nothing to live for in despair, He who converted from Eugene Debs' Socialism to Republican McCarthyism
so you, in your despair found god... good for you, and god.
Lord, protect you from suicides and despair

and you raised 3 bawling brats, we red headed ratzos...
You cleaned our tushes.... what more could we ask for?
And you? Protect you from grandchildren...
Make the human race, something idyllic and wondrous
Let your generation cure Polio, stop war, hunger.
Love one another
Barbara Louise Schwarz
Ghost Writer for Dr Joyce Brothers
Wrote how to grow a garden, though you never gardened before in your life, and your garden grew
Not just imaginary

You told me stories of children getting beat,
The human condition--
Protect me from those beatings
Please, don't let me be beaten
Let your father throw down his arms rather
than continue the endless cycle

I want you to be saved from your brown thumb
& from grandma Levy's burnt cookies
& from nuclear holocaust
& from crack cocaine-laced chocolate chip cookies
& from unbottled water
& from the cold & heat
& from the squabs that steal from your hummingbirds
& from repeats of the Daily Show and Colbert & mediocre episodes
& from running out of rollover minutes
& from dad's farts
& Hitler part II
Dear God,
Let mom
Smoke a hookah of snow
eat adrenaline of gastrolyphs
let the grey of rochester melt into sun glazed
beaches,
let the cruise ships carry her to warm waters
where she can swim
- Let the workers get social justice
Let Bill and Lois W,
and Shakespeare and Cesaria Evora
and the Weavers all be there
And let the sun
declare us all luminous
and lusty livers
experience
beauty, laughter, love &
watersong.

Listen: the rain.


PS. Dear Lord (MS Word 2007)
Protect Document