sun hurls arrows at distant horizons
light swallows slices of his silhouette
grandfather remembers the mystic
bar Yochai
Romans are hungry for his blood
his blood is hungry for the sacred text
those who embrace it dance
in the line of fire
he hides
a confluence of secrets
at his lips
wind blows open
the silent mouth of caves
light awakens
inner walls
the Zohar
shines beneath
The Orchard
a cryptogram
illuminates
the roots of tradition
he inscribes stanzas
everywhere
he finds surface
on parchment
on stone
inside his eyelids
when he sleeps

Grandfather remembers
Don Isaac Abarbanel
he declines the offer
for personal asylum
while his people
burn or
flee
the ship he buys
with rotten hulls
sails from closed port
to closed port
he dips his quill into
the sea
he writes the fluid passage
Going Out of Egypt
faithful mariner
in lunar light
Grandfather lays
ancient maps
over new terrain
centuries steady his hand
he charts the trails
one
fixes his true north
deep ravines
imprint his longing
two
bind him to prayer
the music of his identity
waves to infinity
three
beneath re-routed
silver paths
he charts
paths rooted so deep
they might never
be taken away
over a fresh path
excavated from memory
air currents gather to dance

redemption is one breath away

during the long night
stars signal each other
in a language unknown to him
he cloaks
in prayer shawl
leather wraps
orbit his head
his hand
a palimpsest
old texts breathe through
sacred scroll
interior pole
wound round
and round the tale
he is bound to tell
forced by pressure of light
through the sieve
of his pores
he prays
dissolves into rivers of light
changes his substance
as easily as I
shift a burden
from one hand
to the next

 

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Links and Dr. Belsky's articles:
MASK
Introduction to Retorno 2003
Stages of Recovery in a MASK group
MASK Parents at Work