Magdala on the Via Maris
hosted the caravans;
Egyptian traffic”glass in ingots,
ivory, lapis, apricots,
papyrus, ostrich-feather fans;
the Magdalenes laid out their fish
for salting near the inns;
behind the fly-specked drying racks
day and night the willing women
catered to the Bedouins;under the towers of the town
the virgins and the wives
spun and wove and dyed the flax”
Magdala’s celebrated linen
smooth as young flesh: Crowds of lives”
the merchants and maids, the easy girls,
the cityful who spun”
who salted fish”and maybe one
remembered, and the rest are gone
into oblivion.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Does Just War Doctrine Require Moral Certainty?
Pope Leo XIV has made it clear that the U.S. war on Iran does not, in his…
The Church of David Bowie
David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and Godby peter ormerodbloomsbury, 256 pages, $28 Thirty-four years…
Finding a Pulse
Trueman’s new book, The Desecration of Man, should further cement his authority. It supplements, focuses, and in…
