Reports of Ecological Disaster, Cause Unknown, Passover 5759

by Steven Sher (October 2017)

Landscape in Red Light, Emile Nolde

In this season of our freedom,
we remember how the Nile
 
red with blood once flowed
and how the strength of
 
Egypt ebbed until its host
drowned in the Sea of Reeds.
 
Again the river is a floating grave:
bloated fish and hippos,
 
carcasses of crocs: another plague
upon a house forever cursed.
 
The cry, We are all dead men,
again rising through the land

 

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Brooklyn native Steven Sher is the author of 15 books including, most recently, Uncharted Waters (New Feral Press, 2016) and The House of Washing Hands (Pecan Grove Press, 2014). He has taught at many universities/workshops for more than 35 years. He moved to Jerusalem in 2012. Find out more at stevensher.net.

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