matt in palestine

I said the snow was like palestine-

the palestine by the river,
the one they said swam like
a fish, in the dead sea, which
was choked with salt, and looked
beautiful in the morning-

and I sat down.

and he wandered to jerusalem, and he was sick
from the sun, and then came home,

and pressed his head against
the snow-

it was the wall in the end,
and the river. it was the lebanon
of his folded hands,

and in the fever,
the palestine fever
that was as red
as a comet, he stood by the
pale wall

(pale as his Jericho eyes)

I said
the snow
was like
jerusalem. cupped it into my hands
until they burnt, and then I dropped
it on the cracked ground

and walked inside.
he was against the
wall. I could see him.
I could

see him like a fish in
a river, a

river of salt