POEM: Prayers to John Grisham

Walls and Domes

On this flight to Pittsburgh
the man next to me reads
the latest thriller with
lips aflutter.

He reads with Talmudic fervency
divining the permanent in black and white.

I look half-eyed at the city splayed gray below me-
the air clear,
spires of scrapers
just below the wings.

This morning, making my son's bed
his room came alive
with signs of his being-
the pillow shaped to the curve of his head-
and the air
that carried the scent of him
as sheet and blanket crested,
passed through me
true as God's unutterable name.

Martin Kohn's work is in the medical humanities, currently as co-founder of the Center for Literature, Medicine and Biomedical Humanities at Hiram College. He serves on the board of Tiferet Village, an emerging Jewish artists and activists community grounded in spirituality in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. His poetry has appeared in numerous print and electronic journals.

Image: Walls and Domes by Hava Intrator-Barak