Some sling stones (Poem)

Earlier this week I was involved in a terrific online discussion about finding and using our voices. Often when I'm deeply unsettled by something, I turn to poetry-writing. The poem below is my response to this week's events.

Some sling stones:

in the ancient fight
of a David against his Goliath
on the West Bank.

Terms of battle have not changed.
The World Cup goes on, and tomorrow
we celebrate our independence.

A drop of explosives takes
out Hamas homes, breaks the fast
after the sundown raid.

This eye for that limb.
These tears for that blame.

               "My heart, too, is with them."

In the forest outside Jerusalem,
the body of an Arab boy
lies "in bad condition" one day
after three Israeli children are buried
together as one.

Whose mother will be still?

© 2014 Maureen E. Doallas
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The quote "My heart, too, is with them." was tweeted by Kay Wilson, who knows first-hand what it is like to be a victim of terrorism (read her story) and is a model of compassion and forgiveness. "Them" are four murdered children: Naftali Frankel, 16; Gilad Shaer, 16; Eyal Yifrah, 19; and Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, 16. (The spellings of the youths' names have appeared in some news articles as Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach, and Mohammad Abu Khieder, respectively.) 

The quote "in bad condition" comes from a July 2, 2014, Washington Post story about the death of Abu Khdeir. How "bad" is reported in this story in The Telegraph.