Easter Bouquet 2025: Dream of the Old City, by Bethel McGrew

Bethel McGrew is a freelance writer based in Michigan. Her articles have appeared in various national and international outlets. Find her Substack at furtherup.net, and check out her poems for PFPOI's Halloween Sonnet and Couplets contests.

Dream of the Old City

In waking dreams, I walk the Way of Sorrows

Between my yesterdays and my tomorrows.

I smell the market, watch the children leaping,

And still I hear a hundred daughters weeping.

A soldier walks behind you, flagrum swinging.

You sway and stumble blindly, sweat drops stinging.

Yet even now, you sorrow for the city

With not a second wasted in self-pity.

God, I’m not man enough to loose your sandal,

But speak the word, that I may touch and handle…

You fall again, bone scraping out of socket.

I turn around: Did someone pick my pocket?

Now I have stepped on air, now I am falling.

Through darkness, you pursue me, always calling.