This is my first entry. I traveled with the group but went without headset, I’d been there five time before, I didn’t need commentary. I took notes from which the following submissions come:
“Prayer Shawls”
They hang neatly
striped prayer shawls
worn many times
while reciting Hebrew prayers
the fringes, decorations, embrodery
the trim, frayed
from use
the Shema quoted from heart.
How many prayers were said
while wearing these shawls.
“Braids”
Shuffling through the rooms
visitors hear of
systematic destruction
of tragedy,
pile and piles of hair
burlap sacks filled with hair
cloth and netting are the product
these didn’t affect until the braid
lying just as it is was cut
from the terrified head of the
woman just hours
before her death
her ashes, now scattered,
but her braids remain,
reminding us
never again;
but never never comes
and again keeps coming
again and again,
Babi Yar,
Auschwitz,
Vukovar,
Srebrenica,
Darfur,
Somalia,
Bishkek,
again and again.
kingdom travelin' 