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Poetry || SubmissionsTHE CHILDBy Karen Alkalay-Gut He wets his bed at night and in the morning runs to the junction to throw stones. What did he eat for breakfast? Who washes his clothes when he comes home at dusk full of dust and the sight of his friends (from the same bench at school) fallen in blood? Behind him his uncles are urging him on and shooting over his head at soldiers still boys themselves. In the kitchen Mother wrings her hands and takes comfort in the fact that her child is her savior, alive or dead. I too dream of you every night, child, small and scrappy and hard to control, determined to change the direction of generations, full of disdain for the days just gone by, sure you can make it by the force of your anger. I dream of you not as your foe, but as one who has heard screams like yours in the night and do not want to reassure you with dreams of paradise for martyrs, as one who has grown up with my own enemies and bogeymen, have known children holding up their hands at rifle point on the streets, walk every day with brothers and sisters who died before I was born. And in my dreams I hold you and feed you and read you a fairy tale, a bedtime story, still believing I can keep your fears from growing up true, teaching you gently from your folklore and mine, tucking you in and promising to wake you with a new morning. Karen Alkalay-Gut gut22@post.tau.ac.il http://geocities.com/alkalay_gut/ Today's Situation
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