Fifty years ago today
an attack was well underway
On Yom Kippur, October 6
Israel was in a fix
Egypt had invaded the Sinai
Syrians climbed down the Golan Heights
Arabs sought to recapture land
which they regarded as theirs 'by rights'
Three weeks later, Israel was up off her heels
at the gates of Cairo and Damascus
troops ready to seal the deal
But the US said No! Israel had to go
back to the preexisting status quo
2,400 died in defense of their nation
as Israel began to grow impatient
with their supposed Allies in the West
When on your holiest day, your enemies attack
Why should you give what you captured back
______________________________________
The 2,412 soldiers who died comprised 1% of
Israel's Jewish population in 1973. A comparable
figure would be 300,000 American soldiers dying
in a four-week war in 1973.
When Bayt lahm guttured Bait lehem,
no bagels and baguettes are baked.
As hummus and labneh melting down,
prickly grapes grown in Golan Heights,
Awakened Elchanan terminated Goliath.
Raising Rachel tribes of nomadic life,
goes to a mysterious hypogeum.
The underground chamber,
forefather of Hebron and Nablus.
WHERE THE FLOWERS DIE
Beyond the fence we shouldn't go,
not even look, if we're alone,
nor see some things we should't know.
My innocence has died, although,
I'm still the child I've always known,
and hide the me I want to show.
Out of this wasteland, what can grow,
where only dust has ever blown,
too where, we never even know.
The Golan seems an empty show
the yellows, browns of rock and stone,
where we must make some flowers grow???
© ron wilson arbuthnot
aka vee bdosa the doylestown poet
CHILDREN OF THE GOLAN
Beyond the fence we shouldn't go,
not even look, if we're alone,
nor see some things we should't know.
Our innocence has died, although,
we are the children never known,
and hide the we not meant to show.
Out of this wasteland, what can grow,
where only dust has ever blown,
too where, we never even know.
The Golan seems an empty show
the yellows, browns of rock and stone,
where we must make some flowers grow?
© Ron Arbuthnot
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