Snow in Jerusalem
by Marc Mangel
Whiteness gleams and weighs heavy on all
For even a holy city, if there be any, id not
tax exempt when the tax is
heavy and wet and white.
The golden dome capped in white sleeping hat
surely must have slumbered
as no calls rose from the peaks
for the calls were beat down by the snow
which also showed those walls of Herod what is
realy strong
and how man is weak
as the stone weeped and
rotted.
As the Torah goes from Tzion
in came the whiteness
wet and wild
the hills — sometimes green and sometimes brown —
lost their brown quickly and painlessly
surely
but not forever
and all that marked the pureness were the green
beacons rising slowly but ever straight
and the hills shone in the sun
for twice there was sun through
the grey
other trees were luckless
and fell
after fighting the great white father
hard but they wearied
and spirits weakened
they could not hold up their shields
so they toppled
softly
crashing
into hard ground eased by whiteness
or they bravely stood
and fought
hoping and praying for warmth
Those roads, those slow and tortuous
desparately winding roads
disappeared
gobbled and hidden away
Hoping perhaps to be used again one day soon.
Man nor beast could find those roads.
Hungry people
not yet hungry in their stomachs
but hungry in their minds
hungry in their hearts
made empty by snow.
hungry people rank and bought
the bread of life and milk
white as snow.
January 1973