An October Thursday Morning

(Poet of the Week, Poetry Super Highway, 11.2005 )

We should have been tired last night
but weren’t
were not in bed at midnight
yet chose not to hear the news

Now it is early morning Thursday
sleep has been short and dreamless
the pillow does not give as much comfort
after an attack and the body aches
with the strain of waiting;
only the ears are not exhausted

We have a cousin in that city
who was at the market a few hours
before the attack
and heard the explosion from her flat

And of course you used to go there often
when you lived in the adjacent town
prior to the intertwining of our lives

They were all our ages, the five who died
beyond their prime
and having contributed already to society,
this is no tremendous tragedy,
and the country sighs with collective relief
that the children were all in school

One of the dead was Arab, why not?
One has the same last name as our neighbours upstairs.
is that why they were so quiet last night?

Thursday morning
hugs are suspended
the telephone rings
it is the man from the internet provider
to address a question

Business as usual
and five more funerals

© 10.2005 Helen Bar-Lev