skin as soft as freshly washed sand,
the taste of salt upon my lips.
is it the same for you?
your eyes are the shards
of pale green glass strewn
along the beach,
wherever I go you watch me,
whatever I do you see.
like a prophet
wishing that only the best part
of his prophecy comes true,
I come to you, a faithful pilgrim,
head covered in the clouds
a galabiyya of air about my body.
I prostrate and entwine myself
with you in supplication,
like the finely knotted stitches
of a prayer rug
and I whisper that until you,
I had never been so religious.
your previous lovers
who cluttered their love with stone and mortar
will not be soon forgotten,
I who clutter you with words
am already,
like one breath following another.
all that I write on your skin
is washed out to sea
and returns on the wind
spread like the seeds of wild flowers
which grow among the rocky hills and ruins
like silent colorful pilgrims
up by the mosque of sidna 'ali
as the last remains
of a religion, and a memory,
and a love and words.
VOICES ISRAEL 1991 (19, pp. 3-4). Apollonia aka Tel Arshaf is the ruins of an ancient port city 1 km north of Herzliya, Israel. The city itself has had numerous names over the centuries and has been destroyed as many times. Richard the Lionhearted defeated Salah ad-Din there in 1191. During the early Byzantine period , the city was the site of a glass factory. The emerald green shards of glass one easily finds on the beach and in the sea surf are remnants from that factory. Yoram Kaniuk in his short story "The Vultures" writes about this location.
