The Germans Would Call

The Germans would call

And my boss would answer

And I…

I would hear him laughing

I had a new baby

I had a wife

I had...bills

One German in particular

Would call

And ask questions

And sometimes

If my boss wasn’t in

I would have to give him answers

To his questions

About…

Things we were doing

Here in America

My mother was Jewish

But I never told anybody that

Because I knew

The lay of the land

And my wife begged me

Not to make waves

Because my older brother

Was always causing trouble

Before he took his own life

She was worried

I was going to turn out

Like him

Even though we weren’t

That far apart in age

And my temperament

Was always more like

My father’s

My wife said ‘Don’t tell anybody

About you being Jewish’

And so I didn’t

But we heard…

I heard about

What was going on

Over there

Or the rumblings

Of what

Was going on

And I certainly knew

Why the Germans

Were calling

They wanted to ask us

My boss, me

The people working

In the office

About what we had

Going on in Alabama

And Arkansas

And Georgia

What sorts of rules

We were putting in place

Including our laws

About marrying

And sex

And that kind of thing

They were--

One of them told me

In a thick German accent

How impressed he was

With what we were doing

Over here

In fact, he told me

That he wasn’t sure

They’d be able to go as far

As we had gone

In America

With regards to our

Negro problem

The phone used to be damp

With the sweat from my palm

As I listened to that guttural accent

From across the ocean

Paying me compliments

While fresh ink

Dried, right from the typewriter

Where I was writing up

Policy and proposed legislation

I’d come home

And my wife would say--

I don’t want to hear it

You’re good at

What you’re good

And once you’re good at it

There’s no use

Trying to be

Good at something else

And the Germans thought
I was very good

They thought

We were all good

They thought we were

Exceptional

What do you call

The people

That the bad guys

Look up to?

And they would tell us so

When they called

It was always

The first

And last thing

They would say