Fall

Christian Century, Oct 17, 2001 by Kemmer Anderson

Judges 9:14

The palms of the Palestinian man
wave from the photograph.
Blood cries out across the field
while the morning sun strikes
the sourwood, red maple, sweet gum,
   dogwood,
black gum, and sumac on Waldens
   Ridge
where trees bleed with autumn
   metaphors
pulsing for meaning among so many
   dead brothers.

When Gideon withdraws to a
   demilitarized zone
who will rule over us?
The bramble
with its mimetic crown of thorns,
a shadowy form of reconciliation,
not the light rising from our mourning.