A New Year? The Last One’s Not Ended!

Turn back the clock! Let’s try that again,
Last year’s not resolved, we must make amends.
Bring them back home, let’s make this right,
Out of the darkness and into the light.

Courtesy Times of Israel (Photographs of the victims killed and held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza since the October 7 massacre, at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv. September 29, 2024. – Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Another new year, another new moon,
I’m not yet ready, it’s come far too soon.
I can only look back; it’s a groundhog day,
I’m stuck in the old, it just won’t go away.

A new year comes round, and we wish for the best,
But it all sounds so hollow, with this stone in my chest.
I can’t wish for good, so I’m wishing for better.
While praying for change, a change that will matter.

So, what do I wish for, this forthcoming year?
The small things in life, like sleep without fear.
When beeps on the hour don’t fill me with dread,
And the news seems so “boring”, no mention of dead.

Own image

To take off this pin, when the last one comes home,
Welcomed by loved ones; no longer alone.
To look up to the sky, and see only stars,
Not rockets, collisions, explosions and scars.

When the house shakes from thunder, and “yoreh” means first rain.
Not sound from a launcher while we pray for good aim.
To dance in the raindrops, as soil turns to mud,
Not sit in a room, and wait for the “thud”.

Image taken from video shows missiles fired from Iran being intercepted over Jerusalem, October 1, 2024. (AP)

To feel safe, and sound, to have time to mend,
There’s no new beginnings, before this war ends,
And THEN we can welcome תשפ”ה
And heal, and rebuild, and forge a new way.

To be inscribed in The Book, for I’m tired of the “awe”,
To celebrate Life, and not ask for more.
This is my hope, my Hatikvah,
Kol od Balevav, Penimah.