Yad LaBanim (a memorial for our children)

(There is a Yad LaBanim memorial in Jerusalem – there are many throughout Israel – for those who died defending the City, and citizens of Jerusalem who defending Israel on all fronts, since the time the Turks ruled the country. It is located at the western end of Gan Sacher Park, closer to the entrance of the city.)

There’s new names to put up now, glistening in metal.
They’re over the seven hundred mark, but you can’t read more than a few at a time for the hurt.

There’s three parts to this place, Tourists:
An office, modestly set,
A huge airy room with names
and more names
on the walls.
And a small room with shelves
and with files
with pictures
with stories
with letters
with articles and clippings,
one for every one who died.
Anything they could gather about the dead
they gathered
from the family
from the friends
from the newspapers
from anywhere they could gather.

The man from the modest office showed us a file;
he shouldn’t have done that.
Now they’re no longer cardboard files.
Now they’re no longer just names.