I sat across from a carved wooden chair
Blanketed with rich fuchsia
and ornate golden leaves
woven with grandeur and royalty
I blinked
and before me reclined a smiling man
along in his years
a tightly wrapped turban
with clove cigarettes sticking out of the folds
sparking to match his fiery grin
and crackling laugh
His robes were oxygen set ablaze, glowing and flashing
streaked with a turquoise so violent it looked stolen from the rips left in the eternal sky
by the force of a falling star
His beard a palette of every color passed in the age of a man
light blond as the glow of a yellow flower in the palm of your hand
coppery reds dug straight from the river beds and wolfish, dashing grey
halo’d in angelic white
and tinged purple, ever so slightly,
and the edges of his mouth
In his hands rest three perfect matzot
and mirth dances constant on his glowing face
He lifted the first
and with it came the cracks of whips
the bellowing of men no more than animals
crying wives and the vicious teeth of crocodiles
fish and onions cooking in the pot
life hanging in the balance between coarse bread and melons and cucumbers
white hot pain lacing the back
and the same back caught gently by a rough straw pallet
sweet release, deep sleep
The Nile floods, recedes, floods again
He raised the second to join the first
now the disk is scarlet
glistening iron and bronze adornments
scaled breastplates and plumed helms
a pilum shatters the window
a gladius runs through a Torah scroll
the ink is blood, pooling on the ground
women scream
children run to hide between their own legs, chased by foxes
Lions of men stand before the lions of the plains
as millions jeer and place bets
drunk on vinegar and bathtub gin
a city burns
collect the ash and bake it into loaves
carried on our shoulders
we set out to wander
He drops the third
It connects with the ground without fracture
He laughs aloud, practically howling
Picks it up and dances with childlike excitement, purest bliss
He looks at me, and looks to the open door
With a wink, he runs
and throws the disk out with a cackle into the crisp, cool mountain air
it spins and arcs with the breeze
the deep ever-greens and grays of the vernal hills
and it is carried by his laughter, moonlit, through the homes of new families
through the current directed by the mouths of proud parents
and the loom of history spins forth a new tapestry
the city on the hill is crowned with caravans on hilltops
light shining forth from its towers
iridescent and evermore
the stars knit tenderly
to speak the name of G-d
I blink again, and he has climbed up on a ladder
singing loudly, pushing angels aside
briefly irate, then a thousand times more joyous
and they add their voices to the chorus
notes ascend and melodies shake the earth
the sky is open and our hearts are full
standing together
His grin shapes mine
His lightning smile, ours
and this home, built and builds
Selah
This year in Jerusalem
