Ezekiel's Wheel

Ezekiel’s Wheel

 

Merkabah

 

training in the negev

hot so hot

we are boil-in-a-can soup

shmuel loads the big gun

and I fire we train for

symmetrical war

though my tour of duty is

firing a micro-tavor

at modern-day

dauds slinging stones

and the occasional

molotov

 

we are with the likeness of a man

piloting the chariot

ezekiel’s wheel will not turn

on disputed ground

near gaza where samson

toiled eyeless

with a wheel of his own

merkabah is the sentinel

the guardian on the hill

we patrol

with the likeness of a man

shooting at boys

 

 

Daud

 

they come

the soldiers

in helmets and jackets

so similar to the one

khaled wore to

the bus station

in jerusalem

for a very different purpose

 

I will throw

stones

sticks

fire-in-the-bottle

and insults

 

they will shoot

some over our heads

others at our legs

they may send

abu whoosh whoosh

but it won’t fire

unless we have

katyusha to play

her barrel-organ

 

they are so weak

 

hamdullilah*

inshallah**

 

 

Footnotes:

 

*thanks be to Allah

**by the will of Allah

Daud is the Arabic version of David.

Merkabah is the hebrew word for chariot used for what Ezekiel recounts as having seen in the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament. It is also what the Israeli Defence Force call their tanks.

abu whoosh whoosh is a transliteration of what the Palestinians use for helicopter it means "Father of whoosh, whoosh" (think about it).

Katyusha is the old Soviet Military’s nickname for a multiple Ground-to-Ground unguided rocket launcher, the Germans called them Stalin’s (Barrel) Organ. The nickname stuck through the entire Cold War period for updated versions. The PLO still have suppliers for these weapons. This ordnance is unreliable and mostly inaccurate.