Bert Almon: Two Poems

During the First Gaza War

Köln, July 30, 2006

In the parking lot of Köln Cathedral,

I watched pro-Israeli demonstrators

waving blue and white flags.

The Landespolizei in brown trousers

and tan shirts stood between them and the Palestinians

with their green and black banners.

The demonstrations were disrupted by the bells

for the evening mass. I went into the dark

sanctuary of the Cathedral to listen.

The homily was shot through with the words

Krieg and Frieden, delivered from the high pulpit.

Behind an iron grate, the largest reliquary in the West

holds the crowned skulls of the Three Kings

in golden sarcophagi, stacked one over two.

The kings are refugees from Persia

via Constantinople and Milan

through a series of pious thefts. Across the aisle,

the Milanese Madonna and her baby

wear their own crowns, and she is besceptered:

no further gifts are required.

Her halo is a wire circle with twelve stars.

And where did I find my living Madonna?

As the…