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Orchids
by Ronnie Kadish
I almost overlooked the orchids
Tucked in a quilt of color.
Spread over rocky soil.
Fog misted their blossoms,
Beaded their crowns.
Cloaked
By wisps of clouds,
Afraid of crushing,
The purple cups-
I paused.
Up from the valley
Came sounds of battle.
Tanks rolled orchids into mud.
I wanted to spread my arms
Over the sea of flowers,
Pluck the orchids,
Weave them into garlands
For the dead.
Ronnie Kadish is an American who has been living Israel for the past 40 years. One of her children is living in the West Bank Town of Itamar. On the day of the Israeli Defense Force's entrance to Nablus she was on a bus leaving the settlement to her home near Tel-Aviv. This is a poem relating her emotions and personal feelings as she saw the tanks rolling into Nablus.
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from the May 2002 Edition of the Jewish Magazine
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