For Shirah’s Neighbor

I’m pretty sure no paratrooper will drop

into my backyard

and take me hostage.

-

I’ve not lost sleep that our yearly splurge

of a music festival

Would be the site of an invasion.

-

A kiss goodbye in the morning

isn’t accompanied

by the fear of an empty house when night falls.

-

The news doesn’t wait outside my windows

seeking a glimpse

of my life to blame me for a nightmare of pain.

-

I take for granted the privilege

to live my life

without seeing it splashed across the news.

-

I remember where I was on 9/11

it changed my life

how many will remember when your world shattered?

-

Your family, your child, your parent

birth home or

determined homeland decision: all are treasures.

-

We have not met, we may not meet

distance is the convenient illusion

of strangers as you seek light, water, heat, help, and hope.

-

Shall I give blood, here,

so that the butterfly wing of connectedness

means your neighbor receives it?

-

Shall I turn my face away

from the truth you cannot escape

and leave you exposed in your grief?

-

I hold the light and a space for you

speak the truth, and when they pass my way

tie tight the fraying bonds that hold our world together.

~~

Two high school friends (Shirah and Michael) live in Israel, and I see them in the headlines of the horror that is unfolding.

War is good for absolutely nothing and diminishes us all.

Please leave a comment, heart, and a prayer- as you would.