Poetry

*Beit Guvrin

by

Leslie Cohen

Hillsides of vibrant red poppies
waving in the slow breeze of late winter
droplets of blood on a vast healing lawn
cover a city whose skeletons testify
to the force that never dies, but dreams
beneath the red-on-green
of a previous winter.

I step cautiously
into the dark chamber
where a staircase spirals
like the shell of a snail
deep into the columbarium.
Doves still nestle there.

Fingering the blind stone surfaces
I re-enter a piece of sculpture
chiseled by my own hands.

The mighty sigh of a choir
rises through the great dome
as multitudes of former dwellers
join us in the cavern
to enfold us in their echo.

Beit Guvrin
a womb
where the unborn and the dead
dream of us.

* Beit Guvrin - an ancient underground city in Israel, resembling the catacombs of Rome.