Jew Girl - A
Secret Prayer
Dedicated to the Jews of Islam and
the Asiatics; to the Black Hebrews who came as cargo to the Americas (you know,
the ones that they never told you about); and to those who were begot in the
Diaspora and those who came as Rahav and Root, strangers in the land ... to all
of us making that soul journey home.
Dedicated to the life and memory
of
Ofra Haza.
Jew Girl
I’m black as Cochin
Jew as the Nile
A Hebrew of Avraham
Yisra’el’s child
I’ve danced with David
Felt the stare of Michal
Turned the skirts of Islam
‘Cause I’ve lived in that
House
I’m your Diaspora
Your secret, in
tents
From the whispers and wadi
Flow my tears of relent
You open the door
To the sword of ben-Nun
Hear the Shofarot sounding
The remnant has come
I have swam the Seas of
Suf
And walked across the
answer
Yes, I, the Spirit Dancer
I’m like Nomad, Bedouin
stride
I’m a Gypsy, desert star
To follow me, go far
There are six points to my
horizon
-- You captured me
-- And scattered me
-- But (baby), I’m not
dyin’
I’m that Ashkenazim twist
--
Falasha in a bottle --
A Midzarim dream --
An Asiatic saga --
I’m that Ethio-Apher
surmise
A Sephardic summer willow
Hasidim on my pillow
I am Jew Girl, going home
I am Jew Girl, going home
I‘ve got Yerushalayim
On my mind
Eretz Yisra’el’s my
footin’
Mashiach’s on time
This Daughter of
Zion
Many wounds she has bared
Man looks at her body
But, the soul Yah
declares
Jew Girl, going home ...
Jew Girl, going home ...
I’m lookin’ it to the East
--
I’m takin’ it from the West
--
I’m shakin’ it (baby) I’m shakin’
it
To the place where I’ll find
rest
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NIKEIVAH
(FEMALE)
I was not born beauty, too long to look upon
But I was born free
Free from a womb of peace
Into a
world of savory
I waited, pressed against the slope of
My mother's back, furrowed across her brow
Soaked in the
folds of her cover, clinging to her
Tangles, pressing her bowels
with heaviness
Until I moved her, and I came
Such, as I
was
Nikeivah.
My mother protests that my cry was
Round as the full moon, yellowed across the sky
Seen, as
strong as if heard
But they would not hear me ....
YADA (TO KNOW)
My ish moves like yada in the
dark
Slipping silk, a whispered trace, down my spine
Rocking
like the belly of a breathing sea
My ish moves like yada
Yada in me
Like wine sipped through betulah rose petaled
lips
Dropping ruby to my body, flame to my breasts
Like the
tongue of fire mirrored in its dance
Like the rain falls to
diamonds in the night
Like tallit, set to breeze --
My
ish moves like yada,
Yada ...
For he knew me.
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A SECRET
PRAYER
From her birth,
Nikeivah,
to the finish,
you will walk
with the prayers
and cries
of a girl (yaldah);
speak upon the heart
of a young woman (naarah)
and live the peshurs
of a
woman's (ishah) love,
swimming deep
within her passion
for life,
and life no less
than abundantly.
I
introduce to you,
Jerusha(Yerusha)
A timeless setting,
a
hologram
that will swallow you
whole and take you
helplessly,
deep within
the pages,
again and again.
For true
you will be lost,
and then, found -
- and
if you are able,
you will
follow her home.
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"LEFELACH HARIMON"
As white as the rising moon,
quickly skipping like a
young girl,
My heart and spirit are in Her hands...
Rabbi Shalom
Shabazi
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