Apolide - For Gregg

[Jonnie Falafel]

On Carmel beach he saunters
where turquoise meets the border,
His arms outstretched
His upturned palms
Seek signals of a different order,
Eyes the milky horizon line
For signs of calmer water.

His sullen self numb
to the laughter of companions,
neither one thing, the other or either,
Frei nor Frum, Jew nor 'Goy,'
Mount Hermon broods over Babylon.
Why does he hanker away hours?
What does his heart desire?
As brittle as dried flowers.

He's out of sorts with the desalinated state,
Where love finds it's expression
As jealousy and hate, and the fine wine
Of the purple line leaves a bitter after-taste.
Assassins dispatch, contradictions confound,
tired aspirations rake the frontiers flat.
What's the itch he can't scratch?
Golan Magic propaganda grates,
And the Jesus Trail – for Christ's sake!

From Haifa to Nice, Nice to Montone,
Where his voice wormed it's way through
One dark winter night stateless and lonely,
Somehow he knew this was home.
Mornings of defeat, the triumphs of the evening,
The ebb and flow of feeling set the tone,
Welling up of passion, advancing, retreating,
this lying down mute and alone.
Forging our agreements, fuelling our dispute,
exposing the raw rootless discontent -
A wound so sore it bleeds,
'Too much', he says, 'don't touch, don't touch,
I need you'.

In Haifa now he rediscovers
His life in the eye of the tempest,
He has his lover and the love of his friends,
Boundaries, edges, crises and endings. All this -
Why swap high-security for uncertainty and risk?
He calls from his confinement
Intimate and cold, waves over verges
and marches, across unbridgeable distances
In space and time – a thousand miles
and two decades if truth be told,
But we are connected, fingers through fences,
at the perimeter of his heart,
where sentries forbid entry
to his soul.

On Carmel beach he wonders
What would happen if next,
He abandoned himself to the moment
Relinquished his grip on the rest,
Let limits slip and barriers lift,
He types out a text
He holds up his phone in his palm,
But the signals adrift.
It's no cause for alarm.
My message is already clear,
For now and whatever, for love and for honour,
“My heart is a harbour
You can shelter here”

[lizzytysh]

I want to take my time with this, Jonnie, and don't have that time right now.
Will return to it for sure.

[Jonnie Falafel]

Thanks Lizzy I'm always happy to get your feedback. It's very gratifying that you consistently give serious attention to the work of forum members.

[lizzytysh]

Thank you, Jonnie... you write so well. SO well.
This is honest, true, and impacting.
Powerful and graphic images as you use such well-selected words to illustrate the sometimes painful building/loss of what is or could be an authentic relationship.
I'll return to it again and say more, but I need to be getting to bed.
Thanks so much for contributing your work here.
It's always a pleasure to read your poems.
Your final lines are poignant and speak to true love.