From Israel

We were miles overhead in a plane

We had an aerial view of the clouds and 

I was homesick

Let me tell you:

A thin band of sunset spilling over

A cracked expanse of land,

A strip of molten rainbow 

Did nothing to keep my spirit from shaking 

And wriggling out of its vessel as daylight 

Fled the first stars let me tell you

About the girl named after a hurricane

The boy with the amative arms

That the trees may as well as have been woven

Together, swatches of bark crosshatched 

Beneath leaves like felicitous fans in the land

Of Israel, some dried and hanging,

Davening

Here we keep Shabbat with these trees

And the sere blossoms that cling to their stems 

We keep it until the first 

Three stars show their faces 

And we must relinquish our second souls

To the myrtle and the candle and the week we will grow into. 

...

Everything but peace, she says

We have everything but peace 

Here in Israel

God has given us a hazy horizon 

A city with a gilded dome

Green seas pellucid in a sun 

That suffuses the sky with a maternal consistency

For these wonders we pay the price

Of our children

And I'm standing by the grave site

And a soldier my own age 

Is comforting me

Her name is Noa

She's got hair the color of cherrywood

A penchant for science fiction

And a weakness for Coca Cola

She speaks in English 

(In fact she told me

She even thinks in English)

And she's wearing an olive branch 

Like the ones on the tombstones that are

All identical

I want to take her place

To relieve her of the uniform

And the olive branch alike

Because I too pray for peace

But what would I give?

I have no golden dome to trade 

No aqua gradient bridging the elements

No mid-sized star with six million flaming arms

To hold her safe

I have only my life.

...

My palm tingling against this part

Of the Western Wall

Where other women have pressed

Their prayers

Tingling against your chest

Where other women have caressed you,

Seeking asylum

From a shrouded past

L'chaim! 

To (com)passion that lasts!

And the many faces of God in the 

Filmy clouds who won't sit still

Either

     A choir singing Hatikva

          The door swinging open of its own accord

               For Elijah

I'm on a balcony in the Holy City

Set free

Sex is the love of God that God enjoys 

And I have loved

And I have enjoyed. 

Reviews

[johnnywallman]

i loved this work, brought back many many memories, thank you for sharing.

[Patient Poet (Yos)]

wow that was so loong lol ... well hello to you from Israel
I loved the memories you place here , I know you pray there for peace , thank you for visiting , thank you for coming : TODA