R’ Yermiyah ben Elazar said: There are three entrances to Gehinnom. One in the wilderness, one in the sea and one in Jerusalem. (Eruvin 19a)
The hills of hell are green in spring, dotted
with plum and almond trees whose blossoms
cover scars, dug into muddy soil by bulldozers
slowly merging from both sides
Orange fences now wind through the terrain
like salamanders, where in late summer
sunflowers turned their faces toward me
as I walked to the bottom of the valley
where the light didn’t reach and it was very hot
like in a well of fire
where I wanted to forget what I could not
what I could only lay to rest in the caverns
facing Mount Zion that stands firm
No one here forgets anything
The meadows bleed like wet walls in a scaly house
where yellowed plaster flakes along the tiles’ edge
Can life burst forth from a stump?
6000 houses
6000 windows
6000 jugs of bitterness
In desolate places I have given birth to straw
and the shepherd’s speech has fallen silent
And yet it rains, has stormed, a lot, enough
to graze flocks in the wilderness
At night, green lights dot the opaque valley
facing Mount Zion that cannot be moved
Everyone here waits for a version of redemption
