Conversations

 I’m going to Kerch

Eh?

Kerch

That’s a drink, isn’t it?

It’s in the Crimea

Korea? That’s cool, man

No, the Crimea

siege of Sebastopol

Yeah right, got an aunty in Inkerman Street

Kentish Town, innit

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I’m going to Kerch

biggest shipyard in the Soviet Union

even Brezhnev came

now Russia’s across the straits

And the Crimea?

That was in the Pale

The Pale, nu?

my bubbah came from Zdunska Wola

don’t talk to me about the Pale, oy vay!

1942 the Crimea declared

Judenrein

they came with the Romans

and now....

-        Pesach 1897

bubbah’s big sister opened the door

a Cossack cut her throat

they ended up in Norwich

.... a few hundred keep Shabbat

teach the children Torah

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 I’m going to Kerch

They got a beach?

Well, as a matter of fact....

Any clubs?

No, not sure, probably not

What a beach, no clubs

sounds rubbish

give me Bali any day

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 © Miriam Halahmy