will you grieve with me?

🌀

i am grieving, this night as the ones before

the lives so viciously ended on October the 7th.

the mothers, the fathers, the daughters and sons, babies. babies.

the sisters, the brothers, grandparents, and friends. gone. gone.

i am grieving the trauma. rivers and oceans of tears and blood.

i am grieving the taken, stolen and held hostage.

their families waiting. waiting.

i am grieving the fear this has awakened in so many.

the fear in my friends’ eyes.

i am grieving the loss of soul that can so callously commit such horror

and destruction.

i am grieving anti-Semitism and its rise.

i am grieving the loss of conscience that aligns with terror.

i am grieving the loss of awareness drowning in a sea of confusion and conflation.

i am grieving the innocent caught in the fiery fury of revenge.

the mothers, the fathers, the daughters and sons, babies. babies.

the sisters, the brothers, grandparents, and friends. gone. gone.

cut off. no water, no food, no fuel, no communication out or in.

i am grieving loyalty to governments instead of principle.

what about the injured in hospitals

desperate to hold onto this one precious life?

where do parents run to protect their children?

i am grieving the trauma. mountains and valleys of rubble and blood.

i am grieving justice lost in pursuit of vengeance.

how many thousands must perish?

i need a number,

so my heart can prepare to hold them all.

i am grieving the descent into blindness that no longer

sees all lives as sacred. falling. falling.

where are the hostages? will they survive this?

will they find freedom through rubble and smoke?

the name of God is the sound of the breath – YHWH.

“just breathe” i tell myself.

the name passes over my lips.

every breath a prayer.

Jew, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Agnostic and so many others, all one breath.

Israeli, Palestinian, all one breath.

when we breathe our first, when we breathe our last,

and all the in-betweens, honored with love not blood.