Wogging The Neighborhood

I was dropped on a society of misfits
all the men wearing smirks, their trousers cuffed
all the women wearing bras, their lips greased red to stop a bus
Me a child of nomads, come to the Empire fleeing the aftermath of war

Welcome kids to the Land of the Free, Home of the Scam
Take no offense, patriots. Mark Twain would be the first to admit
Scamming is what got us to Manifest Destiny Land of the free?
You gotta be kidding. The colored were still forced to the back of the buss
So, there we landed in the land of Dixie, us not Chinese, not black nor white
Something else (to say a lot) the blood of victor and raped run in our veins
Our tongue, Ladino, which is to Spanish what Yiddish is to German
We were also fluent in Arabic and could recite the Psalms in Hebrew

Eventually we moved to The Big Apple,
and that same summer upon arrival visited Central Park
Bonkers, was I thrilled to see a real zoo
In the Casbah, I had not seen such but in pictures
Giraffe necks outstretched the length of serpents
Rhinos, horns growing out their snouts?
Monkeys gone crazy seeing peoples.
Gorillas so lazy, their stomachs swollen with bananas and stuff

And then I saw them and screamed with glee, the "focas,"
and every worthy citizen spun around wanting to see a lynching.
"Did that dusky kid just scream, "Fuckers, maybe fuck'em?"
No, she didn't you misters and misses, and you kids in knickers!
The kid said, foca --- "seal" in English
like those flipping focas, their keepers flick fish to
at feeding time at the zoo