so what conflict separates

photo  by the artist

So what conflict separates 

those nested about the Holy Walls?

The Great Coca Cola Machine?

nah, rasta millennial fellaheen only yawn on phones

aesthetically eying

passing beautiful people in shawls and tanktops.

So what conflict separates?

bicycles and scooters adorn Machane Yehuda marketplace alleyways

where straw hatted wanderers stroll the iridescent labyrinths,

some pushing grinning babies,

some leashing two or three well-fed retrievers and German Shepherds.

Hipsters clad in frayed leather sandals

haggling over Shabbos candles

and malachite prayer beads,

rushing past Hassidic tefillin sellers

pomegranate mango juice stalls,

and at long last mounting ancient dolomitic stone steps

reeking from centuries of civilization’s footsteps,

glistening from the sweat

and the tears of humanity.

Then what conflict separates

here in the Shuk HaCarmel?

with Erev Shabbat dawning another 4000 year-old miracle

and Allah’s holy month of Ramadan inching on:

red onions, hummus with olive oil, goat kebabs and red lentils,

alus sikkeen watermelons

all right here in concert

with bubbies teaching granddaughters brust recipes,

and old men in kippahs and taqiyahs sipping tea through sugar cubes,

with Russian and Armenian monastics hurrying along

trailing black and red robes,

nodding toward hopeful teens

busy knitting sweaters outside used bookstores.

So what conflict separates

these Palestinians:

 Jews, Christians, and Muslims?

who light another cigarette when wanting to embrace someone,

and smoking constantly,

these Palestinians who have mastered the delicate art of civilization

through decades,

dreaming of sunflower fields forever,

hip percussionists slipping into further sunrise raga masterpieces,

King David King Solomon

mantra inducing miracle workers,

these Palestinians all, 

praying to,

no, beseeching Hashem to grant peace,

these chanting destitute refugees once adrift

now blending throughout earth’s wide nomadic four corners,

treading four directions of the wind

that constantly blow,

Bedouins attracted to the One Light,

clueless fireflies intrigued by the breath’s endless possibilities,

L’Chaim!

We are all together 

brief candles constantly illuminating,

lights racing past life’s gorgeously harrowing conflicts,

 side-by-side sipping a break fast honey-soaked tea so sweet!”

“Subhanallah!"

So what conflict separates those nested about these Holy Walls?

5/23/2018