Dugit Beach

A humid night in June and the city on the opposite shore

is made more distant in a haze of undelivered redemption.

The silver sun-coin, sinks behind a mountain towering above the Kinneret

where a young woman walks barefoot along the water’s edge.

All of the sins of our humanity, the sins of a year, of a decade, of a lifetime,

wash upon the shore in gentle ripples like smoke from an alter

rising to the soon black heavens.

Jupiter climbs, large and creamy, a weary god, who has all but forgotten
his chosen people and what exactly he chose them for.

The lake is fed by the waters of the Dan sweet and clear
and the murky Jordan neither chilly nor cold.  It is not enough.

Each year it sinks lower until one day

the salt waters will bubble up from the depths.

Galilee will become a true sea.

The murmurs of pilgrims, seekers, revelers, and madmen

float through the darkling twilight. Tiberius begins sparkling
like a rhinestone brooch. The young woman turns toward the city
and setting out upon the night water, begins her long journey to the cross.

The Silver Sun-Coin Sets at Dugit Beach on the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) in Israel