Dan Lukiv

"And in the First Year of Cyrus," poetry Dan Lukiv

An excerpt, a poem based on chapter ten of Ezra // On three rocks they sat, / But the boy faced the Wilderness / Of Judah and the backs of people / Walking. "Mother, he won't / Speak to me." Her mother / Chewed bread she'd / Torn. "Mother!" The girl's / Mother also stared at the backs / Of the walking people. "Aren't / You listening to me?" // "Mother!" / With tears dripping from her / Chin, the Moabitess ex-wife / Swallowed, and said, "Children / Belong with their mother, // My daughter."