Photo by Grant Faint/Getty Images In all the world the tallest of all creatures
is the giraffe, which is as tall
as tales told by liars, or by teachers
to hide their ignorance from all.
Their height will often reach to twenty feet,
their necks erect, by them held high,
but it’s unlikely that you’ll ever meet
a specimen that tells a lie.
Giraffes are therefore creatures you can trust,
unlike those for whom if you stretch
your credence like their necks, you’ll bite the dust,
and eat your words, truth-wrecking wretch.
Although I’ve heard giraffes are kosher I
oppose a shochet’s right to slaughter
them as much as telling any lie,
which don’t forget, you never oughtta.
The only mammal that’s already born
With horns: our graceful, gauche giraffe.
The lie that Jews are born that way they scorn,
Responding, “Please! Don’t make me laugh!”
Gershon Hepner
2/10/2021
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
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