How magnificent
Were your garden walls,
Gardens cascading
Like waterfalls.
A mighty lion
With eagle’s wings
Were you, Babylon;
Your wicked kings
Thought they had control of things,
A mighty and vicious bear,
The Medes
Had surrounded you,
And was laying siege.
Your arrogant power
Entertained no fears,
Able to withstand
A siege for years,
A hundred towers,
A moat all around,
The mighty Euphrates
Ran through the town;
Double walls ensured
No attack would stick,
The inner wall alone
Twenty-one feet thick!
Praising Babylon’s goddess,
Plundered vessels did you flout,
The G-d of your Judean captives
Your time then ran out.
Son of Nebuchadnezzar,
King Belshazzar
Received a warning quite bizarre:
Writing on the wall
Disturbed his drunken feast,
Trouble was coming
From the East,
Mene Mene
Tekel Upharsin,
The walls would soon
Be closing in,
Counted, counted
Weighed, divided,
The evil kingdom’s fate
Decided;
Numbered were the days
Of the Amorite,
Belshazzar was murdered
That very night.
The enemy dug trenches,
Your river highjacked,
Your downfall became
Undeniable fact.
Oh, beautiful,
For spacious skies,
Your streets of gold
Sure did hypnotize.
All we had to do
Was Anglicize,
Who knows now
Where your future lies?
People scream, music blasts,
Sirens blare day and night,
All is for sale
Under neon lights.
Your Hollywood sign
Promised glamour and fame,
Now a garish cesspool,
Every perversion
Fair game.
Your leaders’ careers
Come to endings abrupt,
Abuse of privilege
Sold out and corrupt.
Guns produced
On computers,
Leaders cry out vehemently
Against nonliving weapons,
But the shooters go free.
With crime and injustice
We are now overrun,
Another empire’s
Setting sun.
Seemed it’d last forever,
But everything ends;
Forever only
The word of Hashem.
Let’s face it – this phenomenon
Is the American Babylon.
Though Israel is no
Walk in the park,
In this cynical world
There shines a spark;
On the Hilltops
Of Israel’s settlements,
Keepers of the watch
In shacks and tents,
It is they will bring
Mashiach’s advent.
Keep faith, be safe,
And may HaKadosh Baruch Hu
Bring us all home to Israel,
Every Jew.
By Sharon Marcus
