A WALL OF POWER

The Western Wall, also called the Kotel is the last remains of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, which formed part of the enclosure of Herod’s temple, resulted in the encasement of a natural steep hill, that became the Temple Mount. The Kotel is holy due to its connection to the Temple Mount and is holy to Muslims, Jews, and Christians. This holy place was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The remaining wall is all that is left from the Temple Mount. 

A WALL OF POWER

Can a wall really wail or is that a fail-safe fallacy to inspire the fire inside

Does a wailing wall speak to inadequacy inside?

Can a wall 2000 years old wail sufficiently to quell my pain?

Can a wall help me see the heartbreak between Abel and Caine?

Can this 2000-year-old Western wall help our world find peace?

Help nuclear energy threats cease

Pray for wars to decrease

Help humanity stay safe without regrets

Pray no one forgets the past

The result of making outcasts leads to a lambaste

Will this wall provide a safe space to do more than cry about what’s left?

I try to shrug free of my chains 

There’s no escaping the Western Wall’s remains

Power soars through my veins, the wall opens my reality

Feels like labor pains, I feel my soul strain to let go restraints

An African lady, dressed in high fashion speaks in tongues I can’t understand. 

She pounds her chest, pounds the wall with a closed fist, and screams “Jesus” 

The rest of the words are forecast

African Lady’s fist pounds her words into the wall’s veins

A religious Orthodox Jew rolls her eyes momentarily aghast 

Then returns to her private prayers

I try to imagine African Lady’s sorrows as the wall absorbs them

Overcome with waves of feeling, I struggle to see through my tears, fears appear,

I return my gaze to a wall I don’t know but somehow feel like I’ve been here before, 

Wailing inside, feel all aglow, wait for my soul to be lit by peace

I place my shred of paper with my prayers for our world to heal

The wailing western wall, a holy grail

My hand held steady against a small sweet spot of stone, mine momentarily,

Press my hand against ancient limestone

Can’t control the flow of my tears 

Hard to reach through all the bodies to press my hand through 

Other women clamor to touch the wall

Maybe think the wall will heal the

People from many lands and many religions, 

Lay our hands on together, on this sacred stone wall

All hope for love, relief, a better life, for everyone

The wall crowded with thousands of us praying together, 

People from many lands and many religions all here like one

Lay our hands on this sacred stonewall, ancient limestone 

Pray for family, pray for peace, 

Pray for a better world 

Pray humanity will survive, whatever befalls us

Pray for love, relief, a better life, for loved ones

For everyone, everywhere, humanity together, for once and for all…