That mighty hand, that outstretched arm,
parted the Reed Sea
and gave us passage:

Passage through water,
down rivers that dandled the baskets of our children, warding off harm, drifting them to a future
unknown.
In flight over water,
hope finding haven,
crossing over all the flowering waters,
to bloom in all the river mouths of the world.

There are waters
welled within the walls of space and time,
that we use to sanctify
our hands,
our temples,
our dead,
our bodies at the moon’s edge.

There are breathing rivers
into which we have cast our bread
and crumbled our sins.

And the salt water, those tears, that little sea on the seder table
into which we drown past destructions
while remembering them.

Let there be water:
Just as let there be light.
light pearling over water,
a long line of water like a road.

We will dip ourselves in salt water.
We will teach our children to swim.

Lyn Davidson is a multilingual journalist, poet, and tour guide based in San Francisco, and a former associate editor of the Heritage Florida Jewish News. She is often found writing in Mexico and the Czech Republic. In November 2025, she created and led a historical walking tour called Prague Through the Eyes of Its Poets, in celebration of the city’s annual Den Poezie event.