“Fanatics have their dreams, wherewith they weave
a paradise for a sect….”
— Keats, “The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream”
When you complete your mission
and arrive in the place of Judgment,
you will be greeted
by seventy-two beautiful virgins
who won’t like you.
They’ll talk only to each other,
form hostile little cabals,
engage in whispering campaigns
to discuss your every earthly peccadillo,
and, most of all, mock your ambition
to be honored as a martyr.
No martyr, they will say, ever won his crown
by murdering innocent people
You lost your life in vain.
— Jerusalem, 20 Nisan, 5762 / April 2, 2002
Fourth Day of Chol HaMoed Pesach
This poem won Third Place in the 18th Annual Reuben Rose Poetry Competition, 2007, and appears in Voices Israel 2008 and The Somerville News.
