Poem: Groggers on Purim, by Ellen Wasserman

In Shushan many years ago, there was a Persian king.
For beautiful young gals this dreadful despot had a thing.
He had a hefty harem, and he boasted of their beauty.
But prized above them all was his Queen Vashti, a real cutie.
To a drunken feast he summoned her, but Vashti wouldn’t come.
A strong-willed dame, a feminist, but frankly, pretty dumb!
When Vashti balked at coming to the king when she was called,
By order of Ahasuerus, from his palace she was hauled.
The vain and vixen Vashti vanished from the Persian scene.
How fortunate for Jews, for then dear Esther became queen.
Now every Jewish person knows, be he scholar or just layman,
The wicked machinations of the hateful, horrid Haman.
He was consumed by jealousy of Torah-true Mordecai.
Since Mordecai wouldn’t bow down to him, Haman felt he ought to die
And if that wasn’t bad enough, Haman sought to kill all the Jews.
The scenario was scary, all our forebears sang the blues.
Then Mordecai told Esther:  “Our people’s fate rests in your hands.
Our situation is dire, and your attention it demands.
If you refuse to get involved and refuse to plead our case,
Then help will come from elsewhere, and the Lord will bring a ‘nase’.
So Esther bit the bullet, Haman’s wicked plot exposed.
The king had Haman hung up high, no appeals, the case was closed.
Each year when Purim comes around, Jewish people do rejoice.
Our groggers drown out Haman’s name with one collective voice.
But truth be told, what glee I’d feel, what overwhelming joy,
If with the grogger’s twist, our hateful foes we could destroy.
Ahmadinejad would head the list, but there are many others.
Their hatred of the Jewish folk unites them as blood brothers.
Alas, my wish is fanciful, their fate rests in G-d’s hands.
Our groggers can’t reek punishment, they won’t follow our command
So we’ll just keep on making noise, we’ll shout, and yell, and boo.
Until G-d seeks retribution, our noisy groggers will have to do.
But if, perchance, Israel is forced to use a nuclear missile,
Why not put a grogger on its warhead. GOOD RIDDANCE! It can whistle.

Ellen Wasserman lives in New Rochelle, N.Y.  Her grandson, Jack Berger, is a seventh grader at the Westchester Fairfield Hebrew Academy in Greenwich.

KOLOT is a feature of the Jewish Ledger in which readers are invited to submit original work on a topic of their choosing.  Inquiries and/or submissions should be sent to editorial@jewishleger.com.