Obituaries are being prepped, knives honed and mourning clothes ironed.
All for a man who exerts as much magnetism on his likely deathbed as he did for a nation still in the process of defining it's identity.
Ariel Sharon may have been a monster or a leader of men, but he was able to embrace paradigm shifts like few leaders have done - shifts that meant the sacrificing of sacred positions as well as the aggression of neighbors to hold fast a dream. The imprisonment of Yasser Arafat may have hastened his end, or it might have been merely the fading of a generation. What lies ahead is as hard to predict as what went before, were one to travel back in time to the birth of the Israeli nation.
The steersman is away from his tiller.
The hyenas are laughing their sinister song
The desert is silent and dark
The old men are encircled in their secret councils
Arik is in his winter retreat
A winter after his enemy went to the sunset land
Worthy of note: Christopher Hitchens's opinions on The Bulldozer
My memoriam to Yasser Arafat last Armistice Day (my first article on Blogcritics)
Article comments
1 - Elvira Black
Love the poem; love the post. You and Ruvy have inspired me to join in as well. Thanks!
2 - Aaman
Thanks - Great stuff
3 - swingingpuss
Sharon gets such beautiful poetry? If he wasnt a man and had one foot in the grave I'd pout!
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
It's a piece worthy of appearing in a newspaper - not like much of the drivel I see posted. Nicely done.
I don't agree with the two last lines of your poem - Sharon's enemy has not yet gone to winter land. His enemy has been his behavior for the last 5 years. His enemy has been where his soul has led him. He may have a chance to overcome this. A miracle may happen.
But one does not rely on miracles.