this is what it sounds like
dig
here
where her vegetable garden grew
a dove[1] lies trapped under this rubble
do you hear the other one
calling from the minaret?[2]
they mate for life[3]
such steady hearts
six hundred beats per minute
they have been found everywhere on earth
surely we will find this one
in the Alsace[4]
in 2020
this couple
long married
see while walking across a field
a glint
or maybe his hard leather sole
taps out a short tattoo
on aluminum
they dig up wildflowers
unearth a capsule
inside, handwritten on onionskin in the old language:
word of war
a hundred thousand doves of peace[5]
flew brave above that war to end all wars
capsules strapped to legs
their throats intoning ancient sounds
the frequencies of which could crack like scattered grain
the soldiers’ secret codes of conquer held within
back and forth across imagined lines they flew
outspeeding hawks and snipers’ fire
traversing impossible miles
to return home, always home
dig if you will the picture[6]
of you and I engaged in a kiss
the doves of a new world overhead
singing my song of songs[7]
can you my darling
can you picture this?
the olive groves are gone[8]
dug up for this rubble
that yesterday
was home
there is nowhere now
for doves to land
dig in your heart a depression
in which to inter this dove
then dig another beside it
in which to plant this pit
then listen
for the breath of two hundred thousand wings
for the approach of familiar voices
crying out your 99 names[9]
then watch
for a thousand years[10] of branches
reaching like the midwife’s hands
for a hundred thousand doves
to land
at home
at last[11]
FOOTNOTES
[1] The first time I ever heard doves calling (other than on film) was in Pa'ia, Maui in 2019. But then in early 2020, I began to hear them in the neighbourhood where I grew up ... and then again hundreds of miles north of there. In Australia, I have been listening to them outside my window, laying their sounds over the ubiquitous sounds of war and suffering emanating from every screen and newspaper. Apparently doves proliferate everywhere on Earth, except Antarctica. I had the thought: so there must be doves in war zones, too. That thought was the beginning of this poem.
[2] A minaret is a type of tower characteristic of a mosque. It is from the minaret that Muslims’ five-times-daily call to prayer is sung by the muezzin.
[3] Pigeon is the French word for dove. Pigeons and doves are both members of the bird family Columbidae. Their capabilities are astounding. They possess an innate homing ability that exceeds that of any other animal on Earth in terms of distances and odds against them. Their average speed is 60 mph and speeds of up to 100 mph have been recorded over short distances. They've been known to fly as far as 1,100 miles in a single race. They were probably used for communication in Egypt as far back as 1350 BCE. More than 100,000 were used as messengers in WWI, with a successful delivery rate of over 95%.
[4] "Pigeon message found over a century after sent by German soldier:" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54870322 accessed November 04, 2023.
[5] Doves are regarded in many cultures, now and historically, as symbolic of peace, spirit, hope, renewal, transformation, compassion, kindness, and love. By some they are understood to be messengers or even re-incarnations of loved ones who have passed.
[6] Lyrics adapted from Prince’s “When the doves cry” (Purple Rain), 1984.
[7] "My song of songs" is a reference to the Biblical Song of Songs, also called the Song of Solomon and the Canticle of Canticles. The Song of Songs is a book within the third section of the canonical Hebrew Bible, known as the Ketuvim, or writings. Some understand it as a declaration of love by God to his creation; some, as a profound and poetic pronouncement of love between the divine masculine and the divine feminine.
[8] Since 1967, more than 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted by Israeli government authority.
[9] "Your 99 names" refers to the fact that in Islam, Allah (God, the Creator, the All) is known to have 99 names. Most are found in the Qu’ran, while the remaining number appear in the hadith. Allah is understood to possess so many beautiful and best qualities that it is impossible to represent [him] in just a few words. Each of the 99 names relates to a particular attribute, making Allah easier to understand, to petition for help, and to relate to.
[10] Olives are one of the world’s longest-cultivated trees. It is possible to grow an olive tree from a fresh pit. When grown outdoors it can mature in three to six years, and may live for more than a thousand.
[11] In Genesis chapter 8 of the Hebrew Bible, in the story of the great flood, it is told that seven days after the rains had finally ceased, Noah first sent out a dove from the ark to determine whether the floodwaters were receding. “But the dove could find no place to set her feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth. So she returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in her beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days, and sent the dove out again, but this time she did not return to him.”