Thousand Year Old Olive Tree

rosebud tea and cardamom pods
radish and melon
aroma of fruit flower
and memory
shifting through awnings

an urn grows in my hand

its weight tips and
falls breaks
pieces
roll like
cups
spilling

like bones
like heartbreak drop
like sparrow eggshells
stolen by jays
contents oozing
they roll along the pavement

the old woman sleeping
on the sidewalk
pushes them away
in her dream

her sleep a merciful hour
that softens
invisible dread

in my aching palms
are pearls that crumble
but stay strung together
covered in this dusting of ashes


ES, Israel 2006