Sy Roth

S y  R o t h

Weeping Over Dusty Jerusalem

the dust of men covers the earth like a shroud

minute particles of Einstein sucked into left nostrils

Genghis Khan vacuumed into the right.

inhaled with gustatory abandon,

it blasts the eye with crimson carnage,

atomic or lance—

elephantine Big Boy

or marauding Tartars—

a sea of red dust

floats on an ocean of vaporized beings.

dust nestles clumsily on a gray landscape.

remnants of trillions

litter the dawn of mankind—

Cain throwing the first dull blanket, to follow

walls of dust built heavily upon Abel without surcease.

cries of vultures

cleanse the landscape,

their unsated stomachs

ingesting the dust liberally sprinkled

with gleeful enthusiasm.

choking on the dust.