✨ Lives upon Lives
I built for ghosts...
Lives upon Lives
Contractors affix buildings on top
of buildings in Jerusalem.
Occupants below must clear out
for all the years it takes
to finish adding
to sandstone structures.
I have lived lives upon lives.
I want to go back
to when I was certain—it was my twenties.
I dismissed many great women.
Someone greater was always coming along.
I have been an inept architect.
I built for one who does not live
with the truth of others.
I built for starlight,
not shelter.
I built for ghosts
of those never born.
I built a hollow home
for howling winds.
I built a demise
in waiting
and thought it
a masterpiece
towering over
the settled lives
of others.
—Baruch November
From The Broken Heart is the Master Key: Poems, BenYehuda Press, © 2025. Used by permission of the poet. Photo by Mugabi Owen, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.
"I built for starlight,
not shelter."