WILL YOU TELL?

Can you see it still -
The lamplit tables at the edge of the Nile
The feluccas, the bazaars; the pyramids
In the desert - and the little boy who led my camel
And asked me to make him very happy afterward?
You stood here once
With me
- Can you see it still?

Do you remember -
How cold it is at night to cross the Sinai
The Eilat dusk; the lights of three countries reflecting
On the Red Sea - and the Bedouin’s huts with
No walls and a big fire in the middle? And in its
Embers can you see
My reflection
- And do you remember?

And when you smell -
The gum trees after the rain, in Australia
Do you smell the eucalyptus trees outside Jerusalem
On the Sabbath - when we hitched a lift and
Can you see the soldiers guns along the route?
Do you still feel
The tension
- When you smell the gum trees?

And will you tell-
The children you climbed Mount Sinai
And saw the manger in Bethlehem
In December - but there were no shepherds then
And can you feel the ice-chill snow, the biting wind
And that you felt it
With me
- Will you tell your children?

Copyright ©2006 by Elizabeth Vartanian