I can still recall my grandmother saying,
whenever she thought I should be outside
rather than sitting in my room with a book,
that “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Jews
did not believe in the devil and that,
in any event my hands were engaged
in holding the book and turning pages.
I now realize that she had it inverted,
and it is now young hands on smartphones
where the devil does his real work
bring forth a Meta-hell where all
you hear is the TikTok of lost time
wasted on the road to a real hell and we
now know that X truly marks its doorway.