JERUSALEM JUNE 10, 2002
COUNT TO TEN
Dina M Stengel
In a courtyard
ten minutes from Ben Jehuda,
ten little Jewish children
learn to count to ten.
Ten toes.
Ten fingers.
Ten stones.
Ten guns.
Ten days till summer.
Ten friends play
at ten after ten in the morning.
While ten thousand
miles away,
in a land ten times safer
than those ten children's
a news reporter reports
the breaking news of
another suicide bombing
in Jerusalem.
A bus with maybe
thirty people
blown into shards
of bloody rage.
Twenty people dead
give or take ten.
The worst bombing in
the last ten days.
Children count children's heads.
Lila, Jacob, Aaron.
Miriam, Avi, Shoshana.
Yoseph, Elijah, David.
They look around
one by one.
Remembering Rebekah
boarded a bus
with her mother
ten minutes ago.
Jerusalem June 11, 2002.
In a courtyard
ten minutes from Ben Jehuda,
the little Jewish children
learn to count to nine.
