Kotel

Panting from the heat,
I stared:
the only uniform
I have ever admired
stood proud
and tall,
a perfect image
of the Wall you protect.

You became
the Wall
you protect.

Two twenty-somethings,
face-to-face:
uniform and prayer.

The sun lit up
the golden dome
your gun
the chamsah around my neck.

I was blinded,
and I looked away.
When a rare cloud
covered
the bright ball in the sky,
I did not turn back.

I did not want to watch
as faith
lost to blunt
military
might-
you aimed your gun
to protect me.

Your barricade,
you Wall,
killed everything I knew.

Author notes

I'm a big supporter of Israel, but I really didn't understand the complications of what happens there until I visited the border between East and West Jerusalem during the war against Lebanon this past summer. I was stunned by some of what I saw, and it really made me question everything I believe in. This poem is my Jewish-Israeli culture mixed with my own liberal American beliefs, which have become a large part of who I am.

**The "Wall" I refer to is the Kotel - the Western Wall.
**A "Chamsah" is a mystical Jewish luck charm (in very simple terms).