Do I know you?
10/20/24 Debbie Blane
I was thinking the other day about
My young Debbie
And more mature Debbie
Kissing in life
As passages are passed.
Children born
Grown up
Leaving home
Grandchildren born
Watching and feeling the changes in my
Body as the years pass
Knowing the grief that I feel
As Rachel weeping for her children
A Biblical reference
Relating from the Hebrew Testament
To the Gaza Strip and Lebanon
Of today.
Today as I read a post about Rachel
I decided
To
Claim
Her.
I am Rachel.
She is timeless.
Of course once she was not.
Rachel died young in childbirth
On the road to Jerusalem.
Now there are other mothers
And their babies
Dying young
In
Gaza
In
Lebanon
In
the
West
Bank.
Then I looked in the mirror
And I saw the oddest thing
It was
As though there
Was the young mother me
Looking out
At the
Older
Longer in tooth
Me.
Like we wanted to touch.
“Do I know you?”
I thought I heard her say?
There are beautiful parts of you
Tucked away in me
That you would
Recognize
In the body
That you
Might
Not
Recognize
I said to her.
So many women in Gaza
Are not getting to grow old
And have the
Day
Come
When
Their
Young
And
Old
Selves will meet in a mirror and
Blow a kiss.
So many babies and wee
Little girls
In Gaza
Are not
Even
Getting
To become
Old enough
To have
Babies.
Family lines
Are being
Wiped
Out.
“Do I know you?”
“You know some of me.
I know you.
I cherish you.
You are loved.”
