A Jewish comedian walks into
a country
Not just any country
the one that spat out my grandparents
where cousins lie in mass graves
But there’s the funnyman, the Jew
with stubbled jaw and haunted eyes
the country’s hero
A tiny olive-garbed David, he lofts
the blue and yellow flag
on a magazine cover
In a video that awes
the world, he says
I’m here
Here, where my ancestors
lie beneath Odessa, Kyiv, and
villages I can’t find on Google maps
where the earth still whispers
the dark jokes they told to endure
