Thursday, May 16, 2024: Lynne Bronstein's "The Tears Run Together"

 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.