Boston

My prayers tonight as I light the sabbath candles are with the people of Boston.  I was going to do my weekly post today with my progress on the last painting, but I will wait until I have done more on it. It is almost done.  Instead I am posting an old poem (from approx. 20 years ago).  I thought of it when I heard that the terrorists were originally from Chechnya.  It is so sad that we have achieved so much in medical advances, computers and knowledge of many things, but so little in the world of hate that is out there.

a world of war

do they dream of peace?

the children of Michael and Moira. . .

their mothers join hands

marching for peace

praying to the same God

in different churches

who fills their sons' hearts with hate

when Jesus preached love,

who teaches them to make bombs

to shoot and kill their neighbors?

do they dream of peace?

the children of Yaakov and Yael . . .

are they afraid to ride the bus?

do they look at each man with a keffiyah

and see a terrorist inside

or can they see a father,

husband, grandfather?

do they know that the woman behind the veil

changes diapers, reads stories and

bakes treats for her children too,

or do they think she is the mother

of the next suicide bomber?

and what of the children of Bosnia,

Serbia, Croatia . . .

they have no fathers now

living in primitive conditions

their mothers grow old

long before their time

the slaughter goes on

in Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Chechnya

the streets of Brazil

the inner cities of America

we take our freedom for granted

we who live in peace

but it is the children who are the future

the children who dream of peace

but live in fear and despair

the children who learn to hate

the children who grow up

to make bombs

the scars from childhood never healed

the children who dream of peace

but live in a world of war

©2002 Linda H. Feinberg
from "Gathering the Sparks" chapbook
This chapbook is currently out of print, but a PDF file is available for download.
Contact me for more information. lhfeinberg@yahoo.com