Cassandra

“Tell them all that we love them to the moon and back”— the last message of the tatzpitaniyot (female lookouts) at the Nahal Oz outpost on October 7, 2023. The lookouts reportedly foresaw the events but their warnings were ignored. All but two were either murdered or taken hostage. A poem.

 

 

And thanks, thank you all,

every stone, grain of sand

every car, crack, and bird

every sign,

on this borderzone,

which I know like the palm of my hand

 

like I know of a moon that is love

trembling nights, longing breeze

like I know every note of this land

every fracture of heart

every mend

 

Because we are the grey, the murky, the stained

for two years, we are these

peering hours —

And I’m sorry to call you so late,

Sir, but –

 

(you said, you’re the eyes,

sing the strange of the sea.

now a moon full of grief

asks grey questions of me)

 

For the dawn must have also stood mute

in the face of a colonel’s scold

and now it’s too late for this shivering moon, Sir,

Tell them all –

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