by Marilyn Paarlberg
[Note: Paarlberg was a member of the 6-18 April 2010 CPT delegation to Palestine.]
The daffodils stayed up to welcome us home.
So did the flowering vinca,
and the forsythia, as if
they’d been waiting,
heads cocked for the airport cab
that would spit us back onto familiar soil.
We fell into the embrace of green,
of our garden yard, and spring,
and the promise of lilacs
beneath an open window.
Sinking grateful into sleep
we dreamed of another paradise
whose soil still clung to our shoes.
Of gentle slopes, of flocks
grazing ancient valleys in the Hebron hills.
And older still, of that Eden home
where nature rose up in welcome,
where all creation sang its Te Deum,
where all manner of beings flourished
side by side in Shalom, Salaam,
before any dark angel
could lift his dreaded,
banishing arm.
