Hemorrhage & -Jerusalem

Hemorrhage 

David Riesch

Undergraduate/Undeclared

It began as a nuisance. 
Blepharospasmic instances.
The beehive outside my window.
The rise of temperature.
Lack of clean laundry,
Broken fan which creaks,
Dirty cups that reek of…. honey,
It is much too dusty and dry and small in here!

?????????????-Jerusalem

Brittney Tran

Undergraduate/Political Science

Once we were just two Jewish kids,
Playing alongside busy Brooklyn streets,
As we got older, a war grew longer,
In a distant land, an ancient land,
The war raged on in our homeland.

In Jerusalem a bomb blew up,
A bus exploded.
Children, as we used to be, burned up.
Lives destroyed, mothers lost,
As blood flowed down the streets.

“I must go, I must help,” my brother declared.
Ari packed his bags, kissed me goodbye,
He climbed upon the blue and white plane,
That carried him to that distant homeland,
To Israel, to Jerusalem.

The news broadcasted images of the war,
I could see the dead adorning the ground,
Hear the echo of rockets and mortar rounds.
It was like a grotesque painting,
With an obscene soundtrack.

Somewhere in that destruction,
Lay a young Brooklyn boy,
Broken and bleeding,
Ari was dying.
Now it was my turn on the blue and white plane.

Ari did not die that day.
“Meet me for pizza,” he said.
“I’m much better,” he assured me.
“I’ll see you there,” I cried.
My big brother was alive.

On my way down Jerusalem’s busy streets
The sound of an explosion caused me to stop,
A whirl of sirens and soldiers in green rushed by,
An old mad whispered, “Will there ever be peace?”
“They blew up the pizza shop,” a young girl wailed.

I lost my brother that hot August day,
As once again, blood
Flowed down the streets,
This time there would be no phone call,
Telling me, he was okay.

As I sat there and wept,
A tall man in black leaned over to me,
He spoke ancient words from the Talmud,
Words I’ve often heard,
“All who mourn for Jerusalem shall merit to see its rejoicing.”