HOLD ON TIGHT 

Yehudit Sarah Waller

How attached I am
To the woof and warp
Of daily patterns
The sun is rising over oak trees
I wash my hands.

But in the in-between moments of the day
And the quiet of night
I touch other parts of the fabric.

Feeding my cooing grandson
The young Bibas brothers – in a tunnel? Alone?
Pushing a cart through the grocery store
I think of the soldiers with amputated legs
Cooking for Shabbat
Thousands have no home,
No kitchen, and empty place settings for loved ones 

The war is woven in.

Taking a walk by the forested lake
In northern Israel, the sky was choked with ashes
falling on abandoned cities
Intimate dinner conversations with my husband
Crying inside for the young widows with beheaded dreams

Separating the laundry, the whites are spinning;
The dark clothes in a heap in the basket
The sweet young man from the Nova Festival conveys to our kehillah
One moment in a wave of dancing joy
Then lobbing grenades and lying for hours with the stench of bloodied bodies 

I am bearing witness.

Saying the familiar words in my Tehillim,
“Hashem is righteous, He cut the ropes of the wicked.
Ashamed and turned back will be all who hate Zion.”
Hashem, I hold on tight to the promise of your salvation
For dear life