DAYMARE AND HISTORY

DAYMARE AND HISTORY

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A NIGHTMARE

that caused your blood to run cold 

your hair to stand on end

your heart to be set aquiver 

to be so paralysed with fear  

that not a shout or scream 

could leave your throat.

Could sweat, cramped limbs

Pain in the guts and then

uncontrollable shakes , that 

left you in terror or your own shadow.

A Daymare however is ever 

so much more pleasant. 

I took a walk

along the kibbutz Main road.

followed a rough winding track

to our dam

the highest point of the escarpment

top of the dam wall.

From the foothills of the Gilboa,

the valley of Jezreel lay far below me,

as pretty as a picture,

an artist's dream

In the far distance the route like an arrow 

made its way from Beit Shean to Afula

and onwards westwards to Haifa

Tel Aviv Road.

Suddenly I saw Army after Army marching 

Hitites , Amalekites , Phoenicians, Chaldeans,

Egyptians Greeks and Romans Assyrians Crusaders

Turks French and British

a moment of glory , gone , into the mists of history.

by Hillie Feldman.  4th January 1999