Tel Aviv

Walking down the street
Alone at last for those precious few minutes
Alone at last in the baking sun
Skin like pottery drying
Sight expanding through the sunlit brilliance
Nose both wrinkled and open
With trash and with flowers
Such beautiful flowers
Orange-red trumpets with petals that wrap around my mind
Transforming me into something else
Something different
Something altogether magical

And all the while the spirit hums and soars
Flitting above my body
Above the streets
Above the stucco balconies
And above the flat-topped rooves
Above the buildings
Below the clouds
I know I’m in the place I need to be
The place I will be
And everything is right
And everything is beautiful
And everyone is smiling
And all of me is smiling
And nothing, nothing can bring me down

Soaring, gliding, suffused with diamond-patterned light and shadow
Making my way to the beach
To the only place I’ll ever be home
Utter ecstasy and energy
Unending emotional expression
It’s barely contained
I just want to scream
I LOVE YOU
To the world and every person in the street I pass
And every shard of hope
In the soul of all the down-trodden, the failed and destitute, the sad and alone
I want to enfold them in my arms, my wings, and tell them
They are loved
They are important
They are not alone
They will not live alone
And cannot die alone
Because I am always here
I will always love them
They will never, ever be alone

The sun beats down as I walk back from the sea
And my mind is filled with thoughts of all and everything