SENTINEL POETRY (ONLINE)

ISSN 1479-425X

Magazine Monthly

Issue #20  - July 2004

Chielozona Eze

 

The Handwriting

 

 

I count myself lucky; I went to Jerusalem,

I saw the old wall

before bombs began to explode.

 

On the bus back to our hotel,

I found a folded piece of paper,

a pretty handwriting that reads:

“For the one who cares.”

It’s from a woman, one of us, I guessed.

She lacked the courage to walk

through the wall of praying Jews,

like some of us had done,

to post her words

in a crack of the wailing wall.

 

Who did she have in mind?

Who knows?

Aren’t we all gods in garbs of clay,

putting out words in the cracks

of the unknown?

Words, we whisper, fly

like Noah’s dove.

 

If you can't fly, crawl,
roll on the ground,
do whatever you must
to get away from us.
But should you find no better home
come back to us
come back.

 

 

Jerusalem, 1995

 

 

Chielozona Eze grew up in Nigeria, graduated from the MFA program of Purdue University. He is currently a fellow at the International Institute of University of California at Los Angeles, 2004/2005. His novel, The Listener, which won the Purdue University annual literary award for Novel-in-progress, 2002, is being considered for publication.

 

 

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