israel

My heart is in the East
but I am in the farthest West.
How can I feel at home in this distant place?
How can my feet know the soil where I have no face?
Not Spain, though Spanish be spoken,
So far away, my heart is broken.

Oh, Jerusalem, I will not forget you!
Though my heart turn black,
Though my hand whither upon me,
Though age take my mind and my will.

My heart walks on the mountain tops of Carmel and Tzfat,
My soul soars in Metula and high above Eilat.
My feet walk on the land of rushing waters,
But my love is in the land of my fathers.

Deep in the deserts, a wind rose up and with it, a thousand djinn stirred from their sandy sleep. Cyclones of fine sand lifted into the air and dressed themselves in Egyptian cotton and the coarse wool of goats and sheep raised on the edges of the wilderness. Their bodies were wrapped in robes, their heads covered in turbans, their faces obscured by scarves held across nose and mouth so that only dark black eyes looked out. The wind whipped around them, and then blew northward taking the djinn with it.
 
 
 
It was about midnight in Petach Tikvah when the sound of the laundry room door banging open and shut woke me from my sleep. I'd been having a strange sort of nightmare, and was glad to realize that it had only been a dream. I lay in bed for a few minutes, hoping that the wind would die down a little and the laundry door would go quiet. I knew better, though. If I didn't get up and close the door solidly it would keep slamming, and I'd have to listen to my downstairs neighbor complaining again about how rude I am when they are trying to sleep.

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There is a town in Israel with a very special character indeed. It's not a particularly spiritual place, any more so than other parts of Israel. It has no ancient ruins of significant historical interest. It is not the home or birthplace of any historical figure, revered rabbi or possible deity. No, this town is special in a way unlike all the other cities, villages, settlements and towns in Israel. Petach Tikvah doesn't exist.

This week I've gotten a bunch of new toys to play with either from work or because of it. The toys came together and sparked some inspiration and today I'm launching a new site within the AlwaysSababa domain: http://streamingisrael.alwayssababa.com.

little girls don't gravitate to gun fighting
they don't invent war games when they play
only little boys do
then they grow up
     to play the real thing
      with real lives
in the streets of our cities
and it is the little girls,
      grown up to be mothers
who pay the highest price.