MONASTERY AT WADI NATRUN

by David Radavich

How to make sense
of need?–

Christians in a Muslim
land, disciples of St. Mark,

the Alexandrine
visitor,

these herds of camels
loping, sand pastures, wind-
blown shrubs and

then

these crosses,
multiplying in rows

as necklaces,

breast upon sanded breast
with slitted eyes,

dry hollow passages

through time
This is the desert
beyond words.

God rounded to chapels
in punishing sun,

wind flailing
the brazen flame trees

and this horde
of humans

touching the sacred
relic, summoning strength

from bone necessity

a life in sand

that stays and stays
The cleric robes
hang loosely, simply
in the heat, move graciously

as naked feet begin
to pray.

 

Published in By the Way: Poems Over the Years (1998); rpt. Middle-East Mezze (2011).