A Drought That Never Ends

When it rains, the tulips

in my mother’s garden

sing like angels heralding 

a Saviour: “Hark!”

Petals all aflutter like 

the six wings of a rejoicing Seraph. 

I ignore their deliverance 

and lean my cheek 

against the cold 

window to grieve the sun and lament 

the terrible weather. 

Sometimes there is no enemy 

until we go in search of one.

In the poet’s own words:

I wrote this poem at the beginning of autumn, after coming home from two months lounging in the heat of Israel, and being greeted by torrential rain. I was, for a few days, irate and depressed, as I usually am after returning to England from my aunt and uncle’s beautiful home in the Sharon district. But after a few days of sulking, my father all but bribed me to get some fresh air, under the guise of asking me to take the bins out. That’s when I saw the tulips, and stopped, in the middle of the rain, clad in pyjamas and oversized crocs, to write this poem. “Sometimes there is no enemy until we go looking for one”, is how I chose to articulate my decision to make the most of my situation, rain and all.

At Green Golem: The Zionist Literary Magazine, Jesse is the Creative Assistant to the Chief Editorial Board: the number-one junior editor for every aspect of Green Golem’s production.

Visual design by Dan Harris @jewishpaperguy

Dan Harris is an artist based in New York, specializing in traditional Jewish papercutting artforms, reimagined for the modern era.  An ardent Zionist, Dan seeks to use his Jewish art to bring joy, tzedakah and bitachon to all Jews, and to encourage those around him to do the same.  He is an Art Editor and Illustrator for Green Golem: The Zionist Literary Magazine.