Poem 6 - "Hill Country"


Hill Country
Avigayil Rosensweig


They settled in the hill country
Looking down on the foothills—
The flatlands, they called them
Where water fell from the sky
The land exported wine—
And other things, like gods and alphabets

Crafting walls of mudbrick
Each June, when the sun was hot and dry
And no crops ripened
A good time for household tasks—and war

They lived in the hill country
Built their temple—twice
In a city on the edge of the desert
Thrice yearly paid their devotions
To a God they dared to say was everyone’s

They were driven from the hill country
Paid their devotions, still, with naught but
Minds and lips and bits of parchment
Claiming all lands their own—and none
Born in the desert, they said
But their eyes were full of sadness—and memories of hills

 —My brother lives in the hill country

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