Friday the 13th [by David Lehman]

It’s Friday the 13th and I wonder

how the superstition got started.

I’d always thought it was because

there were thirteen diners at the

Last Supper but I recently saw a

documentary about the Knights

Templar according to which

King Philip of France mounted

a ruthlessly efficient surprise

attack on the Templars

and tortured them until they

confessed they were heretics,

gnostics. That happened on

a Friday the 13th in the 14th

century, and ever since it’s been

an unlucky day to be caught

in a storm or shoplifting or in bed

with a person other than your mate

or just crossing the street before

looking both ways in New York,

where, from one point of view,

it’s always Friday the 13th

-- 2 / 13 / 98 [from The Daily Mirror, 2000]

Comments

[lally]

great poem then, great poem now

[Grace Cavalieri]

I love David's mind