October 7 2023

Darkness, in the quiet hours
of that October seventh,
confused and roused from its
heaviness, searched
for  the face
of the familiar moon,
distressed and frightened
moving   lower, and lower,
hiding  behind the gates of
kibbutzim and tents of festivals.
There is no way to stop
what was begun that day: war, mourning,
Shattered dreams and windows and  teacups,
and hearts and bones and families and lives….
There is no way to stop what was begun. Or is there?
The heart pours itself
over the latest news, tears
tearing you apart, the light
requesting your presence,
and you hiding your pain,
and you hiding your fear,
looking towards the east,
Life keeping you west,
dragons flying across the broken trust,
the  soul, restless inside.
And there is no way to stop
what has begun. Or is there?
As the night finds substance in the moon
And the day its center in the sun
The heart longs for peace;
for the moment in which
black, red, and green flags
will be  just colors flying in the wind,
not menacing shouting anthems
asking for an end that is not,
not ,not, not, not, what you began.
And there is no way to stop it
there is no way to win this,
there is no way…and so the heart
must take courage and hope,
longing for something that was
taken when  darkness entered
and the sun did not usher
another day of rest, but greeted
us  with blood and tears
and shouts and burning flesh.
Piercing arrows of  hatred that meant
to end two thousand years of hope,
and seventy five from the river
to the sea, from the heights to the desert.
And there is no way that they
can stop this land of ours from being!
And there is no way that
we can stop their wish for theirs.
And there is no way that
peace can greet neither
darkness nor day, there is no way,
not ever in this way, there is no way.
Not till those  little children
can dance with life and love
and not grenades,
and no more soldiers die,
and no more women cry,
and old men bending over domino
tiles and not graves,
wearing kippot or keffiyehs
sing a song
of shalom and of salam,
under shared olive trees
and orange groves.
For  there is no other way, there is
no other way, there is no other way
to end what has begun, what was begun
that day, when darkness became king
and light became a prisoner…
there is no other way
there is no other way
but to give peace a way.
For this, this can never ever be the only way.