Conflict in the Holy Land
The song rises but can’t be heard.
Swirls in a painting refuse to take form.
The sag of flowers in the vase is final.
Nothing appears to grow here anymore.
Eyes are glazed over with smoke and fire.
A mother cries because her baby just won’t feed.
Something burns between your teeth.
A piece of flesh that keeps your face from smiling.
You try to give your love away, but nobody wants it.
They refuse to acknowledge its existence.
We’re dancing in the desert with old bones.
Dancing with the dead, who can no longer hear us.
Hold them close, see if you can make out
what they have to say.
Thousands of stars
in their empty sockets.
……
This poem is from the chapbook City of Silver and Gold by Miles Liss (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/city-of-silver-and-gold-by-miles-liss/
Miles Liss is the author of Some Inconvenient Poems, a collection of original poetry and art. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Atlanta Review, Chiron Review, and Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality. He is the winner of the 2021 AWP Kurt Brown Prize in Poetry and was chosen as a scholar for the 2024 Yetzirah Jewish Poetry Conference. Miles received his MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He lives with his wife, the poet and writer Zakia Ahmadzai, in Northern Virginia.
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