Monday 14 April 2014

14 of 30 Poem "Another Bad Match" A response to true life events.

Sadly, this is my response to the story of 3 people killed in Kansas for answering truthfully the question "Are you Jewish"?

The story is here


Another Bad Match
 
This if the fifth first line I’ve written.
When a writer starts running out words,
you know things are serious.
They call it drilling down.
Clicking from headline to summary
to the heart of the story.
In this case, the broken heart of the story.
 
Three dead in Kansas and the deeper you drill
the darker things seem. 
Three Jews killed, simply for being Jews.
As a gentile, you like to assume
that beast was slain 70 years ago,
tears shed, shame owned, lessons learned
yet here it is again.
 
On the eve of Passover, no less
a village called Shalom, no less
a conspiracy of coincidence
or premeditated, bitter, ironic twist?
Where do people get the energy to hate,  
so motivated by other people’s heritage and
blind to the shame they bring to their own.?
 
In candlelight and respectful silence
I will send my thoughts of love;
home-made prayers for the lost and grieving.
Standing with you in brother and sisterhood,
Shylock’s speech about pinpricks, bleeding and
hurt with the same weapons
sadly as true as ever.


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