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Chaya Lester

A War not of ‘Iron Swords’ but ‘Ironic Words’

AI image generated by Chaya Lester

Some days what’s hardest in this war
is the Incommunicability of it all.

There’s not an emoji for the emotion of
‘finally-returned-to-homeland-after-2000-years-fulfilled-prophecy-and-willing-to-die-for-it’.
Is there?
Or for the emotion of
‘under-genocidal-attack-from-all-sides-while-the-world-demonizes-you-for-self-defense’.

How strange the cognitive dissonance
of the world stage where we are blamed
for genocide as we defend ourselves
from genocide.
The mind can not hold such inexplicable irony;
~ This is a War not of ‘Iron Swords’,
but of ‘Ironic Words’.

And what of my friends back home
Who watch the damning daily news
and perhaps wonder about me…
That girl who was once so promising,
the cheerleader and Homecoming Queen…
Suddenly come home
to a country in the
least-homey-possible Middle East.

So foreign from anything they know
A Religious Zionist, no less
A fanatic settler of Biblical promises
A pioneer of Unfathomables…

Trying mightily to pin the poetry of an ancient people come home
Willing to sacrifice it all
for something utterly unutterable…
For reasons beyond what can be told.
~ Trying to spin ink out of smoke.
Like straw into gold

About the Author
Psychotherapist, inspirational speaker, wordsmith, performance artist & Co-Director of Jerusalem's Shalev Center. Chaya lives in the heart of Jerusalem with her husband R'Hillel & their 4 energetic children. Read more pieces like this in real-life book form: https://www.amazon.com/Lit-Poems-Ignite-Jewish-Holidays/dp/1623930219
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