The Crusader’s Last Song   Before the dawn breaks on our final day in Zion, we will watch the crescent moon arise from the East. While the heathens pray to their prophet, the sleeping Christians do nothing. God has abandoned us, and we have sinned against God. On our final day in Zion, jackals will howl from the lightless slopes of the Carmel and we will lay our heads against these unbreached walls, our mighty stronghold — we will weep to think of all that we have lost. The breeze will whisper cedar, cypress, spices of the souk. We call on heaven — why have you forsaken me? On our final day in Zion, we’ll come to the sea, to ships that will take us home.     © Michael Fleming Brattleboro, Vermont March 2016