Day 221

Rafah

You do not have to complete the task
But neither are you free not to undertake it….

(From the Pireki Avot)

You are not free not to undertake the task.
You are not free to shift your eyes from this scene.
There are people here who have been displaced
nine times in seven months.  They are fleeing
again, their lives have become flight and hunger,
grieving and numbering who is still here.  You
are not free not to remember.  You cannot
set this aside, look up at the sky, look out
at the sea.  There are children here
who don’t know where they lived, 
who are too small to tell us
what their parents called them.
You are not free to abandon them.  Even 
if you too are broken, if you wake
in the night and weep for everything
you have also lost, you are not free
to walk away.