Jerusalem, that ticking time bomb, shrine of monotheism, Jerusalem torn between the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

With its Hinnom valley filled with flaming trash, its Kidron valley empty with olive trees, its valley of the cheesemakers paved with cobblestones, limestone everywhere turning gray, polished smooth by pilgrims’ feet. 

And a Eurasian Blackcap perching on a cross, and a Lesser Whitethroat circling a crescent moon, and other Old-World warblers bending repeatedly over the Torah of breadcrumbs, watching the Shabbat sun set behind the hills. 

And the bus driver honking his horn incessantly, and the grandmother selling fried chickpeas from her stand, her hands worn and weathered from the work. 

And the vendors pushing souvenirs in the Old City, and the rabbis walking the rooftops to synagogue, and the priest burning incense to eternal relics. 

And the children playing soccer in two courtyards, tzitzit bouncing as they run, surrounded by plaques and monuments to war. 

Isaac James Richards researches and writes about religious memory in the Middle East. He spent a semester abroad at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies and dug for a season with the Huqoq Excavation Project in Israel. His work has appeared in LIT, Amethyst Review, Constellations, Stoneboat, Red Ogre Review, El Portal, Minyan Magazine, Oxford Magazine, The Journal of American Culture, and several other venues. He is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and will begin a PhD program in the fall at the Pennsylvania State University. Find him online at https://www.isaacrichards.com/.