Poems in Memory of the Mumbai Martyrs

Through the smallest slat, a thin flame / dances like a candle's ghost / I see her small hands circle the flame three times / I see her husband's shoulder near, and children gather...

I wish I could explain to you / Why a nation burns in senseless hate / Why our shaken prayers and acts of kindness / Couldn't break the clouds of certain fate...

Perhaps if we reach into the fog, into the ashes / And drop a seed - a seed of the fallen / And fertilized by the pain and by the love / Perhaps a seedling of exuberant life and vitality will sprout and grow / Penetrating the haze

Recently the river of hatred changed course / And back to the East it is flowing / Out of India's billion inhabitants / Among the Westerners targeted to be murdered / The few Jews residing in Mumbai / Were especially singled out for the slaughter.