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Poetry || SubmissionsDateline: Iraq Awash in a tide rage of print this month's war hits the headlines transported by transistor cell-phoned and formulated for the two minute spot the dust and roar of battle echoes into our living room cosy viewing spot for the dying of the occasional inevitable death among the rubble in the background the rockets flare proud burst in living color as the one-eyed, flicker eyed, teli-idol mouths his tidings telling it ' how it is' and well-groomed arbiters of history seize a photo-op O come dance with me the wheel-chair waltz for legless children before the break for commercials The Leather Suitcase They don't make suitcases like that any more. Time was, when voyage meant train, steamship distances unbridgeable waiting for a thinning mail weeks, then months, then nothing Time was, when this case was made solid, leather heavy stiching with protective edges at the corners. Children's train, across the Reich stops and starts again… Holland a lighted gangplank night ferry to gray misted sea-gulled Harwich again the rails reaching flat across East Anglia, to London There's the suitcase in my bedroom, a silent witness with two labels 'Masaryk Station, Praha' 'Royal Scot, London-Glasgow" Leather suitcase from a far-off country Czechoslovakia containing all the love parents could pack for a five year old off on a journey for life. The Sinner and the Saints She will rise with the tide from a silver backed sea writhing with sea-wracked wraiths beyond the dumbfounded elms in the eye of a hawthorn moon loveless as in her beginnings beside the ringing bells of blackness and the three terrible towers whence comes the globular man in his grey pin-stripe suite, he of the rolled trouser cuffs with cows for communion pigs for pardon, and a coopful of roosters for repentance, here she will come with tantalizing steps seeking sable communion with a pack and parcel of long since sinned-out scrotum-swinging saints to find a shriven salvation under a pin-wheeling sky of dervish constellations when cosmos meets cosmos even galaxies weep for joy in the act of creation. Storks at dusk a stork speckled sky storks are flying to the northlands as their generations taught them light fades to evening smooth sleek gliders homing to the darkling woods where secrets sleep with the storks. Random thoughts at 30,000 ft Silver winged proof of aerodynamic theory glinting in a startled sunlight sighing a stratospheric path across the cloud ocean Metallically cocooned seat-strapped passengers, passing time between the continents snoozing, squirming, reading desultory magazines, tax-free giveaways and paperback books earphone blinkered eyeing micro-images on microscreens above unreal blue sky below undulating gray canopy Horizons away new lands await For almost 50 years, Tom Berman has been a member of Kibbutz Amiad in the Upper Galilee. He is an aquatic microbiologist, mostly focused on the Sea of Galilee. He grew up in Scotland, which he reached at age 5 from Czechoslovakia, in the 1939 Kindertransport. He now has six grandchildren. His poetry has been published in Voices Israel; Ariel; Full Circle (Pittenbruach Press), Voices from Israel (Belle Terre Press); Determinations, Poetry Webring; Ariga, et al. His first collection of poems, Handful of Verse; Writers Club Press, iUniverse), is available from Amazon. Tom is the current editor of Voice Israel, the annual anthology of the Voices Israel Group of Poets. He is currently accepting submissions for the 30th volume of the anthology, that will appear towards the end of this year. Anyone, anywhere, is welcome to submit a maximum of 4 poems in English, on any topic and style. For more information contact Tom. Today's Situation
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