Tag Archives: Israel

THE NOT QUITE DEAD SEA

Thirteen hundred and thirty eight feet
below sea level

Unless you live around there
and then all of the other seas
are a long way in the air

Driving through the West Bank
watch the signs as you drop away

After the first six feet you are living with the dead

Down, down, down, you go
foot by foot and year by year
heading for Herod’s health spa
King David’s refuge, and source of balms
used in the mummification of young King Tut

Eight and a half times saltier that the ocean

You float in the water so thick that you can’t sink
and air so thick the sun won’t burn you
as you look up and East into the hills
where the scrolls were buried

You don’t have to read them, you can feel them