Natalie Wood – Poems From Home But Abroad

Natalie Wood Live Encounters Poetry Volume 3 December 2015

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Poems From Home – But Abroad by Natalie Wood. She has featured in Smith Magazine’s Six Word Memoirs on Jewish Life, Technorati, Blogcritics, Writing Maps’ The A3 Review and writes regularly for Live Encounters magazine. Natalie’s poetry blog may be found at www.perfectlywritepoetry.blogspot.co.il/
———–

Betrothed to Me Forever
(Prompted by a translation of a Greek poem inscribed on the wall of the burial cave at Beit Guvrin, south of Jerusalem).

On an fruitless day in a place
whose faded paths forever
bode autumn, I stumbled on
a lover’s note scrawled upon a wall.

“I write wrapped tight in your dear
cloak”, it read, “just as fast as once
you clasped me in your arms.

“But grasp this well. Should
we be allowed to meet but once
again, we must barely bend our
heads in greeting.

“No shared smile, no slight sign that
in another place we were ever
more than fleeting friends.

“After those things – terrible things
– nought remains that I may do to
please you.

“So while I sleep with someone else,
I beg as you read my words, let
me flee while I allow you breadth
of freedom.

“In return, neither scream nor
strike this wall in anger. Believe
instead that I vow in Aphrodite’s name
we will be in eternity like lovers new –
betrothed as if forever.

In sum, it is you I love. You’ll
always be  my dearest one of all”.

———–

When Sabbath Leaves

Sabbath lingers,
sips the last spice-wine-scented,
flame quenched drops,
then slips silently away.

A flinch. A sigh.
Her accustomed treason
never fails to pain.
But Her gift –
his extra soul – is nimbly shed.

He shrugs free,
steps out to bless
the moon.
A new week is born.

© Natalie Wood

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