Refusenik

Those stories of virgin brides
Bathing in streams of milk,
Of whores, almond-eyed,
Purses of honey and silk.

We clamoured for a taste
– Manna from the sky –
Wiped the juice from our chins
And fed on every lie.

*

And so it came to pass
From Joshua to Sharon
From Jericho to Jenin
The holy trumpets blown

The tanks rolling in
Under a hail of stones.
None was spared but Rahab
For the kindness she had shown.

*

Her sons, walking bombs,
Bulldozers at first light,
A dawn of milk and honey
Over the Golan Heights

(Milk of an onion, honey from wasps)
The hills blue and mauve.
A woman wails and spits
In the bitter orange grove.