Jericho or (Kingdom of Heaven)

By Mac Springsteen

A kingdom beside a Spanish bakery

We were the kings and queens of cheek kisses,

coffee, and Coos-Coos.

We stuffed the ghost of Nestor in a suitcase

and brought him home to this Americana town,

where it is so easy to breathe big.

Recollecting the cadence of a Spanish blessing

crafted on the Madrid subway to Sol.

We built cinderblock walls around our hearts

and called them holy temples.

We tossed the keys to the Kingdom across the sea

and wasted away to skeletal husks and pillars of salt.

Locked into old dispensations, we have become satisfied

in our shark skin and bleached bones.

Carry the fire in burned fingers through this valley

where souls are prescribed tombstones

and break down the walls of our Jericho hearts.