To the Artist's Page                    To our home page

To Jonathan Penton's previous piece     To Jonathan Penton's next piece

Lucky Isaac

God called Abraham and said,
'Kill your boy. I'll make you a new one.'
So Abraham got out his knife and tools
And sat Isaac down and explained the situation.
He took that boy to a nice, remote spot
Because he feared God more than he loved his son.

Lucky Isaac. God was just kidding.
But that boy learned something that day,
And he told Jacob, and Jacob told Joseph,
about how God blessed Abraham for selling out his son.
Aaron told Moses, and Moses told Pharaoh, but
Pharaoh didn't get it so God killed his boy to make the point.
So the Spanish Jews told the Russian Jews,
and the Russian Jews told the German Jews,
how a Jewish son wasn't worth much compared to the fear of God.
The white Spaniards, the Cossacks, and the Nazis agreed.
So the Jews bowed their heads, threw down their weapons, and met God in lots of different ways
In lots of different places.

Oh, but we're a long-lived race.
You can never quite kill the guy that stays on the bottom.
So my father had a chance to tell me
about the value of a Jewish son.
Lucky Daddy, Lucky Me,
The Grand Inquisitor and the Czar and the Fuehrer didn't kill us.
And when I see the Black Muslim ranting and raving
asking people why they don't defend themselves against the Jews
I duck my head and shut my mouth
Hoping my boy and I will be lucky from him, too.

And we blame Eve, for bringing us the apple
But it takes a Jewish man to sell out his son.

To the top of this page