The Tears Run Together
I am weary and cannot bear to stay awake
But the Shekinah
Pries my eyes open.
She tells me to look
And I see a woman,
Veiled, holding a dead child.
Cry, she says, for mothers of Gaza.
Then she turns my head
In another direction
And I see more women,
More children,
The dead piled upon the lonely
Bones, the bodies still screaming
From the wresting out of their souls,
Cry, she says,
For the mothers of Israel.
On the earth, some look away
From the dreadful sight,
And some make accusations
While others deny
That they see anything at all.
Does it matter what the reason was
For this slaughter?
Can our wrath be aimed
At only one side?
The Shekinah
Cries at the sight
Of women handled by brutes
Until the handling kills them.
And the Shekinah howls even louder
At those who refuse
To believe
That what hurts one
Hurts all.
The Shekinah
Wants us to meet somewhere
Reach out and touch,
And if we are unable to fully understand,
To at least cry together
For an unarticulated
Answer
To a crisis that does not need to be.
© 2024 Lynne Bronstein
Bio: Lynne Bronstein is the author of Nasty Girls (Four Feathers Press) and four other books of poetry. She has been published in magazines ranging from Playgirl to Chiron Review, from Lummox to anthologies in England, Ireland, Canada, and India. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies and has been read on National Public Radio. She also writes a column on Facebook called Show Biz Cats.
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