Archetypes

My feed is filled with posts
by people seeking their missing relatives;
triggering memories of my parents’ bedtime stories
of post-Shoah searches —
desperate; futile.
This is no accident.
Nor are the Hamas videos
of abducted children
of women degraded
of corpses defiled.
This triggering of intergenerational trauma
is part of the terrorists’ intention.

About the Author

Kitty Hoffman has lived in several cities and travelled the globe. Conceived in a refugee camp in Germany, born in Norway, and raised in Montreal, she has a deep interest in identity, exile, and spirit. Her award-winning writing has appeared in literary anthologies and journals including The New Quarterly, Boulevard, The Commons, and Prism. A spiritual director in Montreal, she is presently working on a book of literary nonfiction about her medieval ancestor, the father of European kabbalah, and the weight of her Holocaust legacy. More info at kittyhoffman.com