The first poem I wrote after 10/07.
~
Be careful who you trust, they said
They will turn their back on you
Don’t stray so far away
Tradition keeps us strong
Be your own mind, I thought
Don’t let trauma choose your path
What’s life without wanderlust?
Tradition keeps us stagnant
It can happen again, they said
Faster than you know
Those you thought were friends
Will no longer have your back
And here I am today
Watching people I called family
Scream for my annihilation
Like cheering at a football game
People I respected, people with ‘intelligence’
Say ‘I love Jews, I hate Zionists’
Like if they get to decide this truth
That ‘Jew’ and ‘Zionist’ are not one and the same
But the most intense of all has been the pull
From every cell in my body and the pores of my skin
Rooted in the body memories and my DNA
And inherent genes of my ancestors
To remember the stories and knowledges
Passed down around the Shabbat table
By our parents and grand-parents
And all those that came before us
The stories that hold our truth and inform our path
More than I ever understood before
The stories of why, when and how
We are still here despite it all
I want to wrap myself in my heritage
As realize more than ever in my lifetime
The warmth and safety it provides
And how it has kept us standing tall
I want to revel in our strength
As it is truly a magical thing
When people across the globe unite like family
And hold each other tight
I want to feel the land of Israel beneath my feet
As for reasons that need their own poem
I have held back and deprived myself
And now it’s finally come full circle
We are witnessing the Jewish Spirit
In its most expansive expression
For the first time in my lifetime
And I want to wrap my arms around it
I want to feel my roots dig into the soil
And feel the history of my forefathers
I want to meet my third and fourth cousins
And feel more at home than anywhere I have ever been
But for now the roar for vindication
Is like nothing I’ve felt before
And yet believe me when I say
I have fought many battles in this lifetime
This is bigger than anything I’ve stood for
It is a truth within my bones
My Jewish pride you sea
Runs deeper than any river
It’s been a journey getting here
I tend to take the scenic road
We are stubborn people, us Jews
Here I am now, I am a Jew.
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