I wrote this poem as a college student in Jerusalem, inspired by a date I had with a young Israeli man who took me on a long night time walk through the back streets and alleyways of Jerusalem.
Four years later, when I was dating a different Israeli man, he, too, took me on long walks through the alleyways of Jerusalem. By then I realized that this was the modus operandi of Jerusalemites.
I married the second man, and we are still taking walks through Jerusalem alleyways.
Jerusalem
I hold you cupped in the palm of my hand
Like a shiny smooth button
or stones
upon stones
In the night you stretch and yawn
and doze into sleep
like a thoughtful man awake in his soul
though body quiet
Jerusalem
atop your buildings are lions
and sundials
I cannot find another place
in all the world
where trees are shadowed so against the moondark
when peeking into alleyways
Jerusalem
up and down hills
swift steps
laughter and joy in the night
melancholy
and toward dawn
the first scent of jasmine
silhouetted against the sounds of
newspaper boys
on motorbikes
three-thirty coffee on a third floor
lights
gentle smiles and yawns
and toward dawn
hot bread
taxis roaming with sleepy-eyed drivers
chuckles
and toward dawn
two men
atop a horse and buggy
clip-clopping over the button-smooth roads
nodding good morning
unsmiling
calm
clip-clopping over the button-smooth roads
clip-clopping through Jerusalem
toward dawn.
Summer, 1971
Toby Klein Greenwald is an award-winning journalist and theater director, and the editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com.
