What Happens Here

Suddenly, I'm walking through the streets of Katamon

bright sun shining, squinting as the light bounces of the Jerusalem stones buildings

feeling tension and peace simultaneously floating through the air

I'm looking through the Jerusalem forest

I'm scanning my brain to locate my Israeli cousins

wondering if/when/where they will be called to serve

My mind is sorting through images and places

And walking down the futile ugliness of a Brooklyn sidewalk,

I'm really boarding a green Egged bus,

quietly observing the faces and finding my place to sit

As I stare out the window at the familiar stores and locations as the bus careens around

I'm hearing the singsong voices of Israeli spirits

and the hushed, toned down melodies of political ongoings

Almost three years later,

I've suddenly shifted

From feeling an aching, dull, distant disconnect

from the Almighty Creator and His most beautiful Creation,

the distant mizrach Land far East

(is it really even there?)

To being back, back there, walking up seven flights of stairs to my tiny Mekor Baruch apartment,

and shutting the door tiredly behind me.

My heart, when I hear the news, beats back to Jerusalem

When I hear that my country is under attack

My mind thinks Eretz Yisrael every other sentence

Even when walking or talking care of children or buying bread.

My spirit breathes in Israeli air

Everytime my newsfeed shouts about The Conflict again.

And suddenly,

Brooklyn becomes the mirage,

an empty shell, just a mashal,

for what I need to do with this earth before I go back home.

And suddenly, every Jew on the street,

we meet eyes, knowing,

That something connecting us is happening nearby.

Suddenly, we realize we are not two, but one

Israel, we see you, we watch you

We are with you.

Together.

Let's galvanize forces and raise ourselves up

At long last.