"A Prayer" by Anonymous

If only I could send you

the fragrance of the apple blossoms,

you, beleaguered ones, running for shelter as rockets and

bombs hail down.

Why do the nations rage so furiously together?

Why do the peoples imagine a vain thing—

the Psalmist’s plaint, so ever-contemporary.

The Sabbath bread is baking.

I offer my heart.

If only I could gather you here in the garden,

in amity, without judgment, joined in our common grief—

you Jews, you Muslims, you Christians,

you: Palestinians and Israelis,

together at our Sabbath table.