Why, what is It that you see father?

'I see Ships, mighty ships, that come here so very hungry, so full of greed, and they feed upon my flesh, ships full of blackness moored to dark, blood soaked docks. And when they have sucked and fed their fill they put to sea upon the waves and....'

'What, oh what is it that you would say father?

'I see darkness, no light, I see my wife and children gathered 'round a lonely bulb, for that is all that we have left from before, and then, then the bulb is popped gone. I see a black light. And...'

'You pause father, you stop, you haltingly falter, why, what is it that you think about? Tell us, oh father, gathered here before your feet.'

'I feel the hunger, when home is the soldier, I feel the gnawing at my soul, a cry for freedom, I feel the fear within the pain and a bloody anger without I...I...'

'Father! You stilt and you lean so crooked when before you stood so tall, so straight! Tell us now, what vexes you so?'

'I see bullets and bombs, I see head and shoulders no longer a song, I see staves torn asunder and my mother being raped before me, though she died all those very long years ago.'

[a silence ]

Is there more then that you see, oh father, oh loved one?''

'I see nothing, nothing more, for I am blind, and cannot stop that which I cannot see. I hear bombs burst my eyes and claws tear out my tongue, for once here were soldiers that now have long since gone. Now I hear nothing, no rhythm, no rhyme, I can speak of no reason for lost to me now are my eyes, ears and tongue.'

'Oh father! What would you have us do? How should we make such redress?'

[silence, the silence of stone]

yechydda,