Jerusalem Lost

Holy City, golden dawn Messiah_
  ancient flax, bloodstained marvel,
    fabled pogroms, gone as forgotten
        rotten figs.

Holy City, the melancholy of caftan_ 
  desecrated scrolls tucked away in 
    a Rabbi's skullcap.  

Herod's ghost looms_
  and, baby Jesus star-strewn across time,
    confounded camel spits out proverbs
          in mercy. 

Hallow, the causeway of hatred to one
  refulgent breed, diaspora shepherds,
        the myth of Bethlehem.

The harlot of Rahab spared the rod of Joshua...
     seven ram trumpets blew the gates off
      Jericho's Kingdom, while earth spins
              her mythical yarn.

Far beyond the thousandth millennium of
  Moses' Yahrzeit, man will question scribes,
   the proof shall burden man into endless
     wars and endless lives shall be relinquished
         for a Ghost. 

The prophets shall ask for repentance
  for vengeance to those who maim 
    the Deliverer of Eternal Life.

- John Hardesty