To These Dark Steps

Aerial Fire

Aza introduces a bright new face
    on the poetry scene, a native of Ashkelon,
the book in his hands is called The Low
    Table of Redemption, a clever turning on its head
of a Talmudic saying, all we desire
    of poetry is there in the exchange between Aza
and her soft-spoken guest, who’d rather read his poems
    than speak of their origins,
a faint tussle of paper can be heard

as we turn over the pages of the handout
    and follow the tilt of his voice, Tuesday, barely
a week into the New Year, and Y explains
    how piguah, which we hear as ‘terror attack’, can mean
as well a simple, or less than simple encounter,
    as in ‘Jacob went on his way and angels of God
...