Jerusalem

                                                    
        Jerusalem- (No turnoff from our lane
        as we drive on a desert road).

        All armies have invaded-
        no creed
        no holy word    
        has been left unscathed
        in this exalted city
        of a thousand centuries.
        
        Perhaps if I had walked
        the Via Dolorosa,
        or if I had touched
        the Wailing Wall,
        or entered
        the Dome Of The Rock,
        perhaps I too
        would be imbued
        to thrash God's will
        about on others,
        to extol my ancestor's way-
        their course and curse.
        
        Perhaps if my husband
        were less a man
        less a lover
        less a friend
        less a father to our sons
        I'd turn to you and yell
        screaming all my own insanities
        arguing with all my angst
        about infidels                                
        barbarians
        filth...
        I'd soil your city
        with the expectations
        of jealous rage
        and zealotry
        and claim you
        as a narrow place;
        no room for anything but
        my own ideology.
        
        Perhaps if my childhood
        had been worse,
        I'd come quivering to you
        expecting God.
        
        But all I have
        are books to lead me
        through your streets,
        temples, chapels,
        even into a mosque...
                
        It's the wildflowers
        on the hills east
        of the river Jordan
        that claim my spirit's calm,
        swilling me with inspiration
        
        the open air
        and the bluest sky.
        
        The kindness of in-laws...

        Jerusalem
        perhaps some day
        I'll come to you,                            
        when the Holy Trinity shifts and settles
        and is equally of  Moslem, Christian, Jew-
        And from that pinnacle,
        pierced by all our empathy,
        I'll be able to walk your streets...
                
        Perhaps someday
        Jerusalem,
        God's claim
        will barricade
        people's hearts
        from hate and bigotry:
        To make a place
         to abide in peace... Yerushalayim.

    

poem copyright ©2000 Anne Selden Annab