Add Ashes, 5785

Add ashes to the Passover plate
this grievous springtime for the innocents 
of Auschwitz, hostages in dark Gaza,
for Gaza itself, for living and dead

find a spot in ritual of telling
to make a paste of ash and wine, the blood
of life, put two fingers in in it and taste
the bitterness of blood in ash, evil

that is ours, their evil, endless folly
of hatred and vengeance, screams of children
and women, silence of those who can't scream,
dead who can't see and the living who won't

taste the bitterness you can't lick away,
then you are ready for truth of telling