POEM: DO I KNOW YOU? BY DEBBIE BLANE 10/20/24

 

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.”