I don’t know how
to write about war
to write about
Israel, today in the middle
of an enormous
divide a civil war
horrible time
Israel a country
I sometimes think of
as my first husband
first country I truly loved
when I was young
I wanted to live in a place
that was beautiful in a way
I didn’t know I fell
in love with Israelis and Palestinians
Armenians and Yemenites
possibilities of living
a peaceful life side by side
so many poets and idealists
beauty of what is ancient and new
oregano and watermelon
people trying in a thousand ways
to live their life
to eat their food
to invite one another inside
to make a world together
where there is no war.
Esther - writing from London. Thank you for your beautiful poem. If you haven't already seen it, I thought you might like to read the words of Haggai Matar, the young Executive Director of +972 Magazine, writing in fear from his home in Tel Aviv: https://www.972mag.com/gaza-attack-context-israelis/.
Feeling so sad.