A Poem for Gilad Shalit

Israeli name, Gilad, unfamiliar, foreign
human dignity's common fate hangs in your precarious moment
Suspended doomsday, random lamb to be sacrificed on the altar of hate between cousins
Abraham rolling in his grave

If you were named John or Mohammed, you could be in the mall or just disappeared
19 years old, reluctant soldier?
pawn in the real estate game
Torah and Koran's beauty tarnished by violent zealots

Disrespected parliment members call for retribution
Noah's surviving ark, Damascus target of war-heads
Deluge of Fire- preventable

Ancient cultural sites of reverence will be gone forever
Worse than when the fascist's took Yasnaya Polyana and burned Tolstoy's books
bombed the oldest Russian synogogue

Gilad, I saw your picture, you were sitting on a picnic table talking to a friend
maybe about girls, soccer, and rock concert

I can't enjoy America's hollow patriotic explosions, while war mongers trade blood for oil
We all want a nice apartment in the land of milk and honey

I pray you get a chance to have a nice life, a sweet girlfriend and good friends
God wants to open our eyes
There is only God's way
He has many names: Wonderful Counselor, Alpha and Omega and Prince of Peace
I pray that he will keep you in the palm of his hand
Wendy
July 5, 2006