When it's over, we skin the war
And study its skeleton.
An archeologist brushes dirt from a bone
She turns in her hand.
She and the man to whom she comes
Between wars tum over and over
In a cold bed. A student turns
A tall page of Talmud.
Interrogated, a suspect from the territories
Turns over names of his neighbors.
Then he is turned out to the desert
Where he is lost until a veil
Lifts and reveals a road.
God turns to observe the familiar world
Hosing blood off its surfaces.
An hour passes, a season
Passes, a cycle of holidays
Completes its tum. A visitor turns
To his host, a woman who lost
A son in the last war.
Between Wars
Between Wars
By Richard Chess
Prairie Schooner, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Spring 1997), p. 189
Biography
Richard Chess is the author of three books of poetry: Tekiah, Chair in the Desert, and Third Temple. Poems of his have appeared in Telling and Remembering: A Century of American Jewish Poetry, Bearing the Mystery: Twenty Years of IMAGE, Best Spiritual Writing 2005, and the recently published Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry. He contributes regularly to “Good Letters,” a blog developed and hosted by IMAGE. He is the Roy Carroll Professor of Honors Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. He is also the director of UNC-Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies.