Sunday, September 21, 2025

Samuel 4: In Writing

Within the darkness

that presses its nose

against the window


a baby screams

and screams

her father humming


desperate sursuration

Not mine. Not now 

Not today. 


Lights out. Bedtime

On distant lit pathways

a stroller appears. Disappears. 



I’m scared to go to the army,” my son says.

What if I don’t like the food?

And also--I might get killed. 


Crouch in a ditch. Pray. 

So many promises I want to make.

But nothing to say. 


I tell him of the Davidka,

the canon that couldn’t aim

but saved the city with its roar


The siren shriek

haunts the night

but my children have learned

to barely flich. 

 

Today my son has an earthquake drill;

last night, a missile.

Saferoroms sprout like mushrooms

before the rains. 


Two helicopters circle 

locuslike overhead.

encircled in the angry

howl of aircraft. 


I will have mercy

on whom I have mercy

And grace 

on whom I have grace.


Yet how we long to lock

salvation in a box

to shoot at will


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