One Day After A Terrorist Attack Poem by Shalom Freedman

I SIT ON THE PUBLIC BENCH

I sit on the public bench
Waiting for the time
To pick up my grandson
From his kindergarten
I could be in my mind
In other universes
But I am where I am
In the holy city of Jerusalem
One day after a terrorist attack
In which four religious Jews
And one Druze policeman were murdered-

I seem to have only my own name to write about
But the world is stubborn strange cruel and indifferent
What will be with all of us so outnumbered
I don't know for certain-

But we are a small people
Who have endured through this hated
For millennium
For a century and one half
We have slowly built
A decent democratic country
We too have given the world
More good in medicine health science
And the courage of our example
Than our enemies have been able to destroy-

Let us pray to God
We can go on and be stronger
And help make a better and kinder world
For ourselves and for others-