GODMOTHER

My family somehow accumulates things

To which they've no natural claim. Thus,

My grandfather -- a Galician Jew --

Had a banshee, apparently left stranded 

In Lemberg when the troupe of dybbuks

For whom she'd worked went broke.

This odd facility probably explains 

My godmother, Alice, whom I've never met.

I know she had good handwriting;

I have somewhere the letter she wrote 

In pale blue ink congratulating me 

On being born. Her parents were Communists 

And she was a lawyer. Who better

To defend me in the Court of God 

Than an atheist attorney? Maybe

We'll finally meet in a celestial anteroom;

She'll shuffle papers, tskking over how graceless

Some of my sins were. I'll thank her

For her letter and for the silver spoon

She mailed from California. What baby 

Could doubt his own consequence 

When he owned a monogrammed spoon?

Perhaps the real reason I've always 

Liked Sam Johnson is that his mother

Also gave him a silver spoon. 

It said "Sam J." on it and though need 

Might make him put it in pawn 

He always, eventually, redeemed it.