ROOTS
Translated from the Hebrew by Jaffa Weisman
Ask them to return,
Cousins, children to one father are we
Ask them to return, praying thinly
Whispering the earthbound sounds, beg
Them to come back. A day shall come when
Words of prayer will be cherished, whispered
Loudly called again to come,
Return to the mountains, houses, fields,
Engulfing voices calling to return,
And none but screams shall be their boundaries
Nor shall the sea be their last hold, its
Waves still silencing the voices shouting
To return, shackled, chains of soldiers
Marching into brothers' wars on fathers
Earth that swallow all.
Beloved lands were called by men and women not to run,
Do not run too fast, don't rush, the place is burning,
And my mother's voice like tunnels calling back her cubs
Into her flameless earth, becoming
Burning ashes,
While winds go round themselves and silence's scepter
Is upon us, and till we freeze we're called upon
Inside the circle
And we die
Encircled
Like Philistines in temples
Beloved lands to say.
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