I wasn’t looking up into the sky that night
but I saw the blast anyhow,
bursting out at me
through my Alabama computer screen
and I gasped,
eyes wide like two white lambs
caught in an alley on Passover night.
I saw them fall,
one Magen David after the other,
till there were 73 less stars
in the dome of the earth.
I stood there, numbed by the dark
then looked down at them
scattered about on the ground,
one point each plunged deep
into the dirt,
five points each spread out proud
in the wind.
© 2/7/97, Lois E. Olena (Reflecting on the death of the 73 Israeli soldiers killed in the Feb. 4, 1997 crash of two Israeli army helicopters transporting soldiers, en route to the security zone in southern Lebanon.)
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