The two stones

Two stones in my palm

One is heavy,

One is light.

***

In the frigid air of Poland

Under a lead sky

A sinister gate stands,

The portal to hell.

Today you will peak over the edge

And peer into the crater

Of human depravity.

I am holding your heart

All the way from here.

Holding it so tight.

I’m begging you not to look in.

Lest you get scorched

By the fire long extinguished.

Lest the shadows of the past

Draw your soul in

And dim your light.

I am afraid

For you walk this world

Soul-naked.

A child's innocence

And the wisdom of centuries.

Fragile like a dragonfly wing,

Resilient like the Wandering Jew...

Covered by angels’ wings,

You come back safely, and

In my hand there is a stone

That weighs nothing,

Yet is too heavy to lift.

The stone that carries an imprint

Of God’s wrath

Of the time when the world was in ashes,

Sits on my table.

To remind.

***

In the hills that wrinkled up

When the world was bathed by the Flood,

Where the air is dry and crispy,

Surrounded by olives and vines,

Is a small pond.

A red dragonfly rests

On the edge.

We turn our faces up,

Tasting the wind,

Soaring on our thoughts,

In the muddy hills of Samaria.

You left behind

The blood-soaked land of Europe,

Parted with your family

To carry a gun and bear children

Olive saplings in the filed blessed by God,

Wholesome and whole

Living every day you’re alive,

In the Land of our dreams,

As the shadows of warriors

In leather sandals

Silently guard your sleep

Keeping company

To the soldiers of flesh and blood.

“Look, Gotenu. We came back.”

***

Today is the day

When my heart knows.

You said, “Your heart will tell you

What to do with it.”

Today I pick up another stone

Muddy and baked by the sun.
In our ancient homeland.

To keep them together.

A testimony

To what we are.

The present is the knitting needles,

The past is a multi-coloured tapestry,

The future is mere thread.

Bits of colour and meaning

Are threaded together,

The needles keep knitting,

Weaving in blood and sorrow,

Celebration and joy,

Little bits of every colour.

We are all knitted together

In mysterious ways.

But God has a plan, you say.

I will keep the two stones

To remind me of resilience,

Of coming back and surviving,

Wandering Jews finding home,

Shadows of heroes,

Of the life’s many colours,

Its ups and its downs

And all that’s in between.

Of our souls connecting

In mysterious dance.