Jean Gerard
95 years old
Former college English teacher, great grandmother, Quaker peacenik
COMMISSIONED
I was commissioned to cross
a desert on a knock-kneed camel
with a sack of dates.
I traveled for hours listening
to the clink of a small bell
tied to his left front leg.
He went up along the tops
On shifting drifts of sand,
then down and over sliding rifts,
me clinging to the wooden saddle
padded with fanciful silk carpets
four hundred knots to the square inch.
The views from up there had no edges,
just space rolling out for endless wind-torn
miles between basalt cliffs
that rose like black glass shelving
where perched silent birds of prey
interested exclusively in bats
when they ventured out of their caves
and flew against the sun at evening
to darken the cool air.
At night we stopped dead in our tracks.
I lay down beside my camel’s acrid smells
and sang till my voice croaked.
He sheltered me and we slept
comforted by the ancient distances
of spinning planets and stars
only a few of which have names
like the Warrior, Seven Sisters, the Great Bear
and the Golden Chariot.
One evening we saw on the far horizon
the twinkle of city lights that told us
our journey was almost at an end.
We had just enough water left.
We ate the last dates for breakfast,
dropping the pits into silence.
I was happy to know we were almost
there when a huge hand appeared
in the sky pointing to Hebron.
I planned to rest there with Abraham,
Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca and Jacob,
after taking a cold shower.
But it had all been bombed
and lay in smithereens. Every bed
was full of bleeding children.
“What did you bring us?” they asked.
I had nothing to give but tears. Still,
their mothers fed me lentils and olive oil.
Am I the only one who moves at night
over the earth through centuries
of hope and despair,
commissioned to cross a desert
on a knock-kneed camel
with a sack of dates?
DEFINING A COMMON NOUN
think "cluster"
see the dandelion's
ball of windblown fluff
think next years' field
of golden-headed flowers
jagged leaves for wine
and gypsies gathering
round a campfire's light
to dance and sing
think "cluster"
see the distant plane
grunt out a poisonous turd
that falls to earth
meant to release in air
thousands of bomblets
that lie in stealth
waiting to explode
and blow off people's legs
think evil close-up
personal, avoidable
and insidious
think soldiers
gathering in battalions
to reassemble broken lives
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