I Had a House in Jerusalem
I had a house in Jerusalem.
The millennia-old city
where a temple was built
and destroyed,
then a second one, too.
Home of the Holy Sepulchre,
Tomb of Christ
and the Abbey of the Dormition
where the Virgin Mother
lies in eternal sleep.
Home of Al-Aqsa, the mosque
where Muhammad the Prophet
embarked on his journey to Heaven.
I had a house in Jerusalem,
on the hills of Judea
where figs grow on the old tree up front
and grapevines in the back yard.
Generations have come and gone.
Newlyweds made love
and babies were born.
Parents grew old
and grandparents died in peace.
I had a house in Jerusalem.
Now Jewish people occupy it.
They came from Brooklyn
and said it was God
who gave my house to them.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
New Widow
She cleans out the closet
of her soldier husband,
empties his chest of drawers
with a heavy heart.
Underwear and socks,
neckties, dress shirts,
double-breasted blazer
will be deployed to the Salvation Army.
Bare hangers on wooden rods
left to carry memories
of garments orphaned.
Endless sorrow now rests
on the vacant side
of their double bed.
Edna Shochat was born in Mandatory Palestine which, in 1948 became Israel. Her native language is Hebrew. She studied art and graphic design and worked in book publishing before coming to the U.S. with her family in 1971. She worked in advertising and daily newspapers and lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lexington, Kentucky, Maplewood, New Jersey and Palo Alto, California before moving to Boise, Idaho, in 2018. She began to write poetry at age 70 while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. What started as a vehicle to carry her on the road to recovery continues to inspire her on the path we all share – the passage of time and the journey of aging. Decent Exposure, her first book of poetry, was published by Poetica Mea in 2024.