A MEDITERRANEAN POEM Poem by Israel Pincas

From inside the ship sailing
far away, I
gaze hard.

The water has mercy. The evening
is like
a thousand years ago.

In our ancient sea
there's nothing new.
Only the wind shifts.

I don't think
I've missed anything.
Everything given ever since

is a gift.
Once a Florentine merchant
came and offered

red glass.
It was the year one thousand
four hundred and one.

I didn't
have anything to give
for it. And he returned.

I'll buy it now.
Like a thousand years
ago, tonight too