SUMAC

(K)now

I don’t know

how to rectify

the braided challah

with a surrounded Gaza

or the meaning of Shalom 

with the loss of home

I don’t know how to hold

two truths when violence

is the primary mold,

so bold

I don’t know how

to drink, wash, or weep

when wells swell with emptiness

or how to reconcile defense

with occupation or how a ceasefire

is off limits when all limits

have been breached

I don’t know how

to raise a

glass glance

son daughter

sun chin

when all the world’s a flame

I know

war is not the answer

not now, not again