Jerash

   
        
        Soft orange almost white
        limestone chiseled...

        Walk down an avenue of columns
        with curlicue crowns holding up the wide open sky.

        Lean over a wall and see a large mosaic floor
        creeping out of dust and earth.
        
        Trace the edges of crumbled walls,
        outlines of a structure:
        One of many contained in a city
        now pasture land
        for tourists and goats,
        who ever is nimble enough
        to find nourishment
        in this arid clime.
                                     

poem copyright ©2000 Anne Selden Annab

The Shrine

        To place a child
        in a niche,
        a smooth stone cradle
        and let him stand
        warm body on rigid rock:

        Be a sculpted creature
        of pink cheek and wind tossed hair
        let the Zephyr bend round your stance
        as it bent round an urn,
        spun centuries ago.

 

 

poem copyright ©2000 Anne Selden Annab

The Theater

       
        Stroll on an ancient walk,
        paved with thick flat stones
        puzzled into place.

        Step inside an amphitheater,
        listen as echo looms footsteps.

        Approach the curved span of seats
        that step up with narrow ledges-
        imagine sweat and smell and sound
        and no choice but to nudge
        and jostle with a crowd
        in this empty coliseum.
        
        But there must have been
        sometimes, in those long ago days,
        that this place was left empty.

        Empty enough for a dreamer...
        To rest on a narrow edge and watch  
        the sunlight play against stone

        as a cloud shadow dances
        across the stage.

poem copyright ©2000 Anne Selden Annab