Vision from Gaza

Vision from Gaza

For Shannon (Shay)

I met her
On her road to Damascus

So I thought

Sun shone on the grit sand
Glint owning shards of light
Spreading them like a warm disease of the mind
She wore her hair in unfashionable ringlets
Screwtapes missing
That was not all
Something else was
Not quite right

She was pretty
Hard though
Somewhat

Eyes half hidden
Hooded with a secret
Roadmap of who she was
Where she had been
Going nowhere
This peach haired Dresden doll

You have heard
No doubt
Of my earlier life
She said gazing, unblinking, at the sun

In Judaism?
I replied

Nodding, she said:
I have sadistically persecuted
The church of your God
I have been zealous
Confident in my woman’s flesh

I am of the tribe of Benjamin
A Hebrew born of Hebrews
Girl child denied the rite
That blood covenant
But I stood anyway
As to the law
I am a Pharisee

But you sound Canadian
I muttered
Bilingual

Righteous
(She ignored me)
Under the law
Blameless

Like me you are a woman I said

Unlike you, I am Jewish she replied

We bleed in common, us
I said

You do not bleed like me, she said
I bleed from the exodus to the holocaust
How dare you say you bleed like me

As we neared Damascus
On this journey
(It was night)
Suddenly
A light flashed around her
She fell to the ground
And a voice said
Why do you mistreat these people?

Who are you?
She cried

Get up
Go into the city
You will be told what you must do
Then the voice was present/silent

I was speechless

She got up from the ground
Opened her eyes
But
Could see nothing

I led her by the hand into the city
An act of kindness
Kindness I did not feel

For three days she was blind
She did not eat or drink anything

In the city there was a woman named Anais

A voice called to her in a vision:
Anais!
Yes
She answered:
Yes?

The voice told her
Go to Judith’s house

Ask for a woman from Tarsus named Pauline
She is praying

In a vision
She has seen a woman named Anais
Place her hands
On her blind eyes
Restore her sight

Anais answered
I have heard about this Pauline
The harm she has done
In Jerusalem
She has the authority to arrest
The Godly
Those who serve the true God
The true God
But
The vision said: Go!

So she went
She went

Placing her hands on Pauline, she said,
Sister, the Lord appeared to you
On the road
Sent me so that you may see again
Be filled with the spirit.

Immediately
Something like scales
Fell from her eyes
She could see again

But she was not converted
The story you have heard
Is false

So
Why
Am
I
On her journey of conversion?

I have a sliver of the true cross
It is the needle that pierced my heart
For me
Damascus
Is just a place
A dream is just a dream
Blood simply as thick as it is

We shared one thing
Though
Her name was Pauline
So is mine

Tuesday 22 December, 2009