RIFKAH GOLDBERG

WAITING FOR THE NAMES More and more days We sit hour by hour Waiting for the names In every innocent corner Danger now lurks and Wreaks havoc in our cities Anonymous bomb blast Scattered body parts that Can never again belong Shattered store-fronts Confusion of goods Broken livelihoods Young parents Expecting a son After two daughters Two teenage friends Who did not manage To finish their last pizza Four pre-army students Deep into traditional texts They will never complete A nursery-school teacher Who never bid goodbye To her puzzled charges Two soldiers together Who did not get home Lie forever side-by-side An elderly man Who will never arrive To console his friend All these names We wait to hear but Can never remember The same names Their family members Cannot ever forget April 2002