WAR

I don’t know how

to write about war

to write about

Israel, today in the middle

of an enormous

divide a civil war

horrible time

Israel a country

I sometimes think of

as my first husband

first country I truly loved

when I was young

I wanted to live in a place

that was beautiful in a way

I didn’t know I fell

in love with Israelis and Palestinians

Armenians and Yemenites

possibilities of living

a peaceful life side by side

so many poets and idealists

beauty of what is ancient and new

oregano and watermelon

people trying in a thousand ways

to live their life

to eat their food

to invite one another inside

to make a world together

where there is no war.