Lament for Ramah [Rachel]

Last year in Palestine-Israel I wrote a poem called Lament for Lifta, the abandoned Palestinian village on the slopes of the outskirts of Jerusalem.

This year I was inspired to write Lament for Ramah:

Lament for Ramah

                   (Gen. 35:16-20, Jer. 31:15-17, Mt. 2:16-18)

Israel wept

Mourning the loss

Of his beloved Rachel

Dying in childbirth

Rachel wept

Mourning the loss

Of being able to mother

Her beloved Ben-oni

Ramah wept

Mourning the loss

Of her beloved children

Being taken into exile

Rachel, Ramah wept again

Mourning the loss

When Herod

Slaughtered the Innocents

Rachel 

Weeps no more

Secure in her

Walled-off tomb [see photo below]

While the slaughter 

Of the Innocents continues