To awaken daily to the dreaded words
hutar lepharsem
no six degrees of separation,
we all know some of “The Fallen”
so many beautiful boys

Shot crushed burnt exploded
gassed or wounded
(hundreds, thousands patzua kasheh)
limbs, eyes, breathing, brain
“The families have been informed”

And we smile at our children
jigsaws, reading, bikes, the park
burying the terror by baking and cooking
cleaning again to blanket the shaking
sneaking the news on, on the hour
and the hour, and the next

hoping not to know the names

“hutar lepharsem” הותר לפרסם released for publication
“patzua kasheh” פצוע קשה badly injured

Ruth Schreiber is a multimedia visual artist and poet (ruthschreiber.com), and now also a great grandmother. Her subjects tend to relate to family and life cycle events, and the world around her. She tries to find the beautiful/interesting/unusual in daily life.