Traveler

I’ve come a long way from home
over the mountains of wailing blood and bone.
I found my love in the distant fields of snow
and lost it in the summer of an avenging sun.
I’m a traveler and have been to many a land
and always held this good book in my hand
Sometimes, I ask myself,
“Why on earth am I here?”
maybe I got my own cross to bear.
I’m a traveler, I know, I can’t help
or maybe I’ve been running from myself.

I’ve seen the naked skin on the ribcage of starvation
a hundred outstretched hands for one piece of bread
peeped into the eyes that got nowhere to look
walked through the rotting squalor of paper and mud
heard the voices of guile and whispers of deception
lying buried in sickness in the forsaken isles of flood.
Sometimes, I ask myself,
“Why on earth am I here?”
maybe I got my own cross to bear.
I’m a traveler, I know, I can’t help
or maybe I’ve been running from myself.

Tonight, I’m alone on the streets of this strange town
ain’t got no friend to meet, and no place where I belong
the whistles of police cars, the rumbles of subway trains
and the chuckles of passing girls are the only familiar things.
My back’s to the wall and I blow air into the cups of my hands
it’s cold, baby, maybe you look to hide me in your wings.
I don’t know where I’m heading, but I know where I’m from
girl, I’m beat and wanna last till I go home
I don’t ask for a fire
and there’s nothing that I desire
this one night, let me stay in a corner of your eye
at daybreak, I go trek a myriad miles and yet find my home too far away.
Baby, sometimes, I ask myself,
“Why on earth am I here?”
maybe I got my own cross to bear.
I’m a traveler, I know, I can’t help
or maybe I’ve been running from myself.

Natural Man

If purple graces a butterfly’s wings
yellow embraces the other
unique nectar and fragrance
manifest in each blooming flower
some set apart by stipples
some stand out in color.
Every sparrow chirps in its distinct fashion
varying flecks on each Kingfisher’s bosom.
Every creeping python
crawling lizard, humming bee,
aquatic beauties swimming the sea
each kind is different from its own
that’s the splendor of life
of being alive under the sky of rainbow and sun.

So was man
before books bent his back with a hunch
and his tender feet were enchained
to classroom’s bench.

Reading unending rows of alphabet
fonts of print on paper
bellowed out repetitions
that taught the same charter
- think alike, know alike and be alike.

I was barked at with canes
whipped on the buttocks
knelt on the burning ground of pains
sat on thin air with my back to the wall
and shamed for being different from all.
The word is “discipline,” but they instilled fear
claiming to groom, they robbed every year
manufacturing puppets faceless and formless
a machination for machine tools
of a dumb army of robots.

My soul was arrested
mind was cremated
and heart was broken, I didn’t know.
Like a flying bird,
a sheep in the grazing herd,
a swaying lily in the valley,
and a Herring in shoals of merry
I discovered not myself.
I know histories of distant lands and mysteries of cosmos
mathematics on both hands and lingua franca of hosts
have a computer on palm
but know not who I am!

New Czar

A new tycoon ascended the tabloid pit
confiscated accolades profusely writ
he unlocked his product, a disguised beast
invented new needs for the susceptible meek
patrons of impositions, his slaves to be
entangled in a jumble closely knit.

Caged universal tongue is unshackled
resurrecting the dead tower of Babel
Then, confounded tongues freed many
on the unfound common ground under a diverse canopy.
Now, sow old seeds again till farthest reach
owners of one market can easily reap.

Dollars and Euro
at hand for borrow
faces, races, human spaces
lined up in sky scrapper’s shadow.
All rise to the new empire
east city, west city and ethnicity no bar
welcome benevolent multi-national Czar
with affluent glitzy palaces of power
ride on the impoverished third world horse
by the closed shop of the universal slave
dragging his stinky hearse.

The Giant

Never trust an old friend
said my old man strolling these cordial shores of golden palms
my tender feet followed him
adoring the vacillating colors of sky kissing the boisterous sea
this is where thunderous peace is.

Sea is a work place
an unfathomable treasure trove our boats feed on
the village is its child
raised in the cradle of sands, rocked by the southern winds

The sea was also an old friend
a vengeful friend is worse than a furious foe
my old man would say
you won’t see him come and go

Carols are ringing at the crack of dawn
festive embellishments are swaying in cold winter breeze
seabirds are vying for the virgin sky in haste
and the sea leapt with outstretched extremities
devouring its own child.
On that day, the friend became an enemy
the giant called tsunami
took away with him everything the sea has given me.

Bus to Tel Aviv

Hey brother, this bus takes us home
all it takes is crossing this bridge of stone

This breeze’s stroking my face much like her tresses
she was my classmate and now my daughter’s mother
I didn’t look into her eyes when I said so long and God bless
but I promised a better home that no storms could wither.
And for them, it’s all gonna change forever tonight
I’m going back home after a long wait
I have bags full of caring heart
taking ’em home never to depart.
Hey, young man in the next seat
Do you have a mother or sister
waiting for you to greet?
Well, this bus takes us home
all it takes is crossing this bridge of stone.

You have that look on your face
maybe your heart’s pounding hard
your shirt is wet with sweat
something’s beneath, you’re trying to guard!
This journey goes on, if we desire
or together we walk the lake of fire.
Back at home, they’ll hold us
breathing in their arms or eaten by locust.
Yes, this bus takes us home
all it takes is crossing this bridge of stone.

You chose to be here
I’m here by sheer chance
together we’re destined to journey
across this promised expanse.
We passed through these gates
and shared these empty seats
as darkness surrounds, we look at each other
this ticket in our hands
can end it here or move us further
as this bus takes us home
all it takes is crossing this bridge of stone.

On my way to Tel Aviv
in tomorrow I still believe
someday, this world we’d leave
meanwhile, there are dreams to weave.
As sun goes down on this Friday
home awaits us in candle’s ray
there is peace and rest on the other side
in each others' blood we do abide
and take this ride into the even tide.
Hey brother, this bus takes us home
all it takes is crossing this bridge of stone.

Notes of a Kibbutznik

It’s been many years, it hardly rained

through thorns and thistles I still plow.

These barren sands I grip in my fists

to make way, in this desert, for a stream to flow.

Cobra and the scorpion search for my heel

and death is splattered all over these fields.

At times, it’s hurled across the fence

as a ghost of midnight’s timid wields.

I retreat not, for this mud’s soaked in my blood

whose malarial swamps my folks once tread.

From the heart of this marsh lilies bloomed again

this is the forgotten home - at last remembered.

Out of empty spaces this moment has risen

upon the ancestral ashes this seed was sown.

Herds of lives had emanated in smoke

their silenced violins and whispers woke up my brawn

new rail roads were laid to send them to death

closed were all roads that bring us to breath.

No light has ever really shone

through my darkest hour I’ll go it all alone

from the valley of death I shall arrive

I shall always win, for I shall survive

I’ve seen broken glass scattered all over

waking to a morning drenched in war

walking lives taken to an abrupt grave

after pieces of flesh were flung afar.

I heard songs of mirth halfway throttled

shrinking ecstatic dances to abysmal sorrow

culmination of feasts in breathless mourning

by mouthfuls of vengeance’s venomous vow.

I bid farewell to them that never returned

walked this graveyard till my soul’s all tired

I’ve seen fathers’ shoulders carrying the sons

and newly wed adolescence burying the bride.

I leapt over the shreds of dead

while flames swept by my side

crept across the rumbling rubble

scampering towards nowhere, to hide.

I’ve seen fire raging in the bright blue sky

and majestic heights tumbling to the ground

voices vanish again in thin columns of smoke

reopening the scars of an age old wound.

But on I go -

reaping the harvest of citrus and dates

till my very last, I’ll be here guarding these gates.

Through the thawing time, had no faithful friends

no good neighbor’s willful helping hands

yes, I open up my chest to the swirling winds of scorn

and hold high the beacon for the future to be born.

Goodbye Home

The unsuspecting sun rose, as usual, in the mute skies
for one last journey over a ground prepared to be betrayed
faithful orchards grown to be forsaken
brick walls of mannequin lives built for desolation.

Dry and dead blood is crying from deep sludge
shadows from the past standby and watch
for the blithely hops of the blissful kids
roars of engines rolling languid time’s wheels
congregation’s ardent recitations and toasts of wine
here - will not be heard again.

The obdurate synagogue door has fallen
human hands knit with veins hold on to the dying bond
like worms curling together, defying the whirling storm.
Rows of eyes stare in and swim the piercing odious waters
gushing in to flush out the remains of forgotten warriors.
Yet, slippery orange hands wave the fluttering wet blue star
on a crumbling roof of rumbling dreams.

Sun is being evicted from his sky.

The inevitable feet of the takers arrive.

One last blast of Shofar and a tearful shalom
soon, I'll be far away from home - Kfar Darom.