Where Moses Crossed The Nuwebian Shore Poem by Brian P FitzGerald

Where Moses Crossed the Nuwebian Shore


He ponders the tide caressing the beach -
Its ripples cross the glist’ning sand,
From Sinai’s cliffs sun-setting rays reach
Far-distant peaks that shimmer in desert heat.

Across the darkening sea, turquoise and blue,
The haze begins to change on Midian’s face, whereby
The golden russet transforms to purple hue,
As rays from sun-set reach across the sky.

A ferry sails by; its wake now washes ashore.
A gliding crane appears and lands on water’s edge;
The boat is safe in port and seen no more.
On one leg, the crane surveys a rocky ledge.

The sun is hidden, the horizon dark,
The water is quiet, the air is still;
Jihad now scribes in sand and makes his mark,
A breeze so softly stirs the dust; a chill I feel.

Generations whose names, inscribed in shifting sand,
Now fade in the dusk, like the crane on the shore,
And those, who make ripples that die away,
Pass into port and are known no more.

My footprints are covered; what augurs await?
The ripples have died; generations come and go.
What names survive the sands of fate?
No Red Sea will part for me, this I know.

19 October 2012