In Response to the Murder of Eleven Jews,…

if they preferred tea with honey

(take a step back)

if they watched police procedurals

if their ankle throbbed

or their hands swelled

and they didn’t complain

or they did

(take another step back)

if they missed being in love

with its anticipations

a hand caressing the small of their back

(take a third step)

or maybe they’d forgotten

held it like a souvenir postcard

from long ago

colors faded

if they had children and

their children had children and

their children’s children had children

or maybe they hadn’t forgotten

(bend knees)

but found instead a love deeper than love

fathomless and devout

if they were simply going through the motions

which now gave them a warm and glowing contentment

that came to them like breath

(bow)

if they recalled the headlines

from those other times

(bend knees)

the hours volunteering at a soup kitchen

writing pen pals in uniform

(bow)

if they remembered fear

or if they’d grown immune

so saturated with it

it had transformed into a fourth prayer

if they understood what happened when it happened

if their hearing caught the stranger’s cry

if they pondered for an instant

if they were dreaming or confused

(fall down)

the wind blows, the rain falls

the sick are healed

the bound released

gather exiles from the four corners of the earth

unto the land

reassemble

here

body upon body

Copyright Credit: Achy Obejas, "In Response to the Murder of Eleven Jews, Including a Ninety-Seven Year-Old Said to Be a Holocaust Survivor, Who Wasn’t" from BOOMERANG / BUMERÁN. Copyright © 2021 by Achy Obejas. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts.