A Better Garden

Hellas’ prince assumed no beaut exceeds

The garden cherished by Shihor’s sons;

The spirit of Thessaly’s pride bleeds

For such splendor in mind-numbing runs

To halt his royal life’s dreariness,

‘Sailed southeast to Haifa, the city;

Solely to ascertain grim distress

From the clutch of probability

On foot from Mediterranean shores,

‘Trudged ‘til the Plain of Esdraelon;

He beheld grandeur-bestowed lush floors

The glorious height—his wits can’t reckon

Basking in the landscape that printed

Its excellency in Isaiah,

Revived his gloom towards what glinted

The victor in prophet Elijah

‘Waved white, abandoned his reverie

He fled from the port’s vigilant eye

A succinct, regal oath was made free:

Tread not Jacob’s ground ‘til dusk draws nigh

He squandered his Holocene epoch

In futile efforts to spot better;

Bemusement steered him to wreak havoc

Surrogates ne’er expunged his rancor

The laurelled head employed suppression

His gaze endlessly graced his demesne

Misconstrued as renunciation,

‘Half-won in keeping his outlook sane

Bored stiff, he boarded Argo Navis

The zephyr’s clout hints a new era

Adrift with one goal as route basis,

Peneus emptied him from Óssa

 The waves granted his core armistice

‘Embraced the serenity he missed

Oft the nub of an old salt’s treatise:

Pleasure of the air he fondly kissed

The crown’s heir sensed the voyage’s end

Shrubberies laze; daybreak raids his den

He scooped some soil—‘tis Zebulun’s bend!

“Ah—still my own heart’s better garden…”