My father, the cancer doctor, sits at the head of the table
coughing like his father, a cancer doctor, coughed
in the oxygen tent in the room in the hospital in Canada.

My grandfather, a Russian immigrant famous for his Anglophilia,
leaned out of his oxygen tent with his riding crop
and whispered through cancerous spittle.

My son, you must become a doctor.

My father, who didn’t want to become a doctor,
sits at the head of the table coughing up white smoke.

It’s Passover and everyone’s on their third glass of wine.
In his best Rabbi Burkle voice, my father chants a blessing, then says:

Jesus smokes.

Now, the Jesus reference is weird because we’re Jewish,
but my father, the cancer doctor, he’s famous for saying things
that are weird like: Jesus smokes.

Myself and my five siblings, all confirmed smokers,
and our mother, an ex-smoker,
sit around our father, the non-smoker, smoking…

Our father, the cancer doctor, who likes to be referred to as
the Blood Count, clears his throat and looks upon our ashen faces:

Just as Jesus died for the people’s sins,
I cough for my children’s smoke.
Jesus Smokes.

Our father, the Jewish doctor, sits at the head of the table
and chants another blessing:

My children, you must never become doctors.

So my sister, the chain smoker, and my mother, the ex-smoker,
and my brother, the social smoker, and my eldest brother,
the I’m-so-broke-I-roll-my-own smoker,
and my youngest brother, the chronic pot smoker,
and my other brother,
the I-just-quit-so-can-I-have-one-of-yours smoker,
and me, the I-feel-so-guilty-because-I-smoke smoker,
all agree to never become doctors.

Our father, the would-be witch doctor, sits at the head of the table
and instructs us, in his bathrobe, to pour the fourth glass of wine:

Blessed are you, Ruler of the Universe, who doctored the fruit of the vine.

And for a moment none of us are smoking.
Elijah’s wind moves through the room and everything is silent.

Our father, the cancer doctor, sits at the head of the table
laughing like his father, the cancer doctor, laughed when he heard the news
he was going to have a son who might–God willing—
be a doctor someday.

Jesus smokes.