Three years ago, the lives of three families were changed forever. My husband and I were vacationing in Israel when the news announced the disappearance of three teenage boys on their way home from school. It wasn’t long before their bodies were discovered not far from where they had last been seen. Because of this, the infamous tunnels of terror were discovered, which had been built by Palestinian terrorists forming a net of underground passages into Israeli towns, cities, and kibbutzim. Soon it was clear that the boys’ tragic kidnapping and murder had brought with it Israel’s salvation from what would have been one of the most heinous acts of terrorism perpetuated against the Jewish State. This poem is written in their memory.

FOR EYAL YIFRACH, NAFTALI FRANKEL, AND GIL-AD SHAER

©Alexandra Goodwin – July 1st, 2014

Heaven weeps.

It’s not the rain that insists
On falling tonight
Nor the sadness that washes
Away our sap
Nor the disbelief that this time
Our prayers were ignored.

Your tender bodies, full of
Promise, brimming with future
Generations, aborted before conception.

Three journeys cut short
Fruit plundered before it got
A chance to be ripe.

Blood drips from your murderers’ hands
Blood too, from those who don’t cry
And while the world goes on in peace,
Three mothers in Israel weep.

School children play in
The freedom of their lives,
The three bodies of Eyal, Naftali, and Gil-ad
Forever in the grave of hatred lie.

And Heaven weeps.