When Snow Fell on the Holy Land
Nan Montgomery
Once, in years past, I wake to my frozen city
greeting groaning people.
Such is the way of the North.
My radio alarm went off and newscasters
Tell us that 15 inches of snow fell on Jerusalem
while we slept. I didn’t hear a whisper of it
but I can see it falling
like one weightless prayer after another.
Today’s news bearers broadcast that place of ancient angers
still ravages the most innocent. Small, shrouded bodies
taken from the beautiful world they might have made.