But Hear the Dissonance 1948–2012

Michael Dickel

Wind blows an aluminum-can
percussion section;
cars thrum bass.

Mind slices melodies
on the road above
an Arab village—

East Jerusalem jazz
somewhere near
the Green Line

follows time
in the unequal night’s
metronome.

Rising voices
sing independently,
calling to prayer;

not far from here,
The Hill of Bad Counsel
smokes in the dark,

a whiskey on the table,
thinking of what might
have been had things

turned out differently—

listens to the dissonance,
and sighs for the Angel of History.

Performed and filmed while writer-in-residence with HamiltonSeen / Sublimatus
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Film by Cody Lanktree, HamiltonSeen ©2018
Poem from Midwest / Mid-East (Is a Rose Press 2012) p. 24 ©2012 Michael Dickel
Hebrew translation by Gili Haimovich here.

If you are going to be in the vicinity of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on 23 February 2018, Michael Dickel will be reading at The River Trading Company on Barton. Check out the Events Page for more details on this (and for future events as updated).