Kelly Jadon is a graduate of Spring Arbor University and holds a degree in English with a concentration on poetry. She is a teacher, poet, and writer. Her poem “To Taste The Oil” was recently featured at the University of Colorado “Eye Contact” event as an audible poem. Her poetry has been published both online and in print in several literary journals. Her poetry book, To Taste the Oil: The Flavor of Life in the Middle East was published in June 2014 by Into The Deep Books.
The author also writes the syndicated column “Hometown Heroes” which publishes nationally online and locally in newspapers and magazines.
Find Kelly Jadon online at: KellyJadon.com
when salt blooms
the sea will bear her fruit
born by sweated men in dump trucks
descending Yam HaMélaḥ’s1 wall
division between two tongues
one father
her inner being hollowed
by claws
taking what lies inside
fruit of the womb
as she sinks yearly
shaken, pressed down
through daily salted tears
deep seeps break loose
hidden sins
bubbling up
bitumen-coated figurines
skulls
sold to Babel
chemar2
bricks reddened
until foaming up
with troubled tongues
as babes
sold into Egypt
for pharaohs making
mūm3
wrapped up as Lazarus
the body in life after death
for tongues
and deeds of men
who mean well
as kopher4 brushed
Noah’s work,
pitch covering
wet out, dry in
hued shadow of
the price of life
ransom paid
reconciliation made
kaphar5
she moans and weeps
her body taken
palus asphaltite6
divided as spoils
lots cast for garments
while they utter “peace, peace”
toward desert blooms
al-Bahr al-Mayyit7
she has given and given
her deeps of death
to life
a race running before enemies
who have bought her soul
the sea
waits on those who mean well
salting bitterness
waiting to give up her dead
1) Yam HaMélaḥ–Hebrew for “Sea of Salt”
2) chemar—Hebrew for tar (Genesis 11:3)
3) mūm—Persian for asphalt, from which the English word “mummy” is derived
4) kopher—Hebrew for “pitch, asphalt, price of a life, ransom, bribe, henna plant, village”
5) kaphar—Hebrew root of kopher, “to cover, purge, make atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with pitch”
6) palus asphaltite—Roman for “Asphalt Lake”
7) al-Bahr al-Mayyit—Arabic for “The Sea of Death”
“When salt blooms” is an Arabic saying which says, “He means well”.
Poetry in this post: © Kelly Jadon
Published with the permission of Kelly Jadon