Judith

Sunrise up the muezzin call
Some to prayer and some to toil
Some fight for love and some for gold
In Cordoba our story’s told

Round valley ringed by mountains bare
In fig and lemon scented air
There winds Al Wadi Al Kabir
That now we call Guadalquivir

Here’s Judith on the road
With fresh fruit from the groves
Where all prayers are granted under arches
Horseshoe and arabesque

She walks along the mountain pass
Where Berber soldiers block the path
They greet Salaam Alaikum
She peels an orange just for him

And in his mouth the nectar sings.
For now this gift her fortune brings
But gone the old ways that she knows
The mournful call of exile blows

Here’s Judith on the road
Her story left untold
Her tender smile was perfume to the sunlight
A ghazal of snow white rose

Praise be to the sky spread out like a bed
Blessed all who love and lovers all blessed
Lapis Indigo and Sapphires blue
People of the book Al Andaluz

So the books decreed
Hope must sow its seed
That saplings and their roots
Grow and bear their fruit of divine sweetness
To feed us in our weakness now

Nine hundred ninety years old
Judith and her orange grove told