No cypress to your cedar now

"No cypress to your cedar now

No cypress to your cedar now

not Ms but Mrs

swollen to woman with child

shrunken to ‘arba amot’

New York and London don’t appeal

and even Sinai

with its subterranean pulse

and lucid light

where needs recede

and souls expand,

even Sinai does not beckon now;

the memory suffices

while I empty boxes

and wait

and you fix cupboards

and work

and comfort

and wait

in the clear Jerusalem winter

where the view from my window

satisfies

while time is heavy

like my breathing.

Notes: Cypress to Cedar: there was a tradition to plant a cypress sapling at the birth of a girl, and a cedar sapling when a boy was born, and the trees’ branches were used to build a couple’s bridal canopy when they married.

Arba amot: Hebrew for 4 strides, and refers to the space immediately surrounding an individual."