"Ninety Seconds" a poem Dr. Maurit Beeri, October 2023
Translated by Eliezer Be'eri
Panicked parents scramble their children towards the bomb shelter.
Terrified, all wide-eyed, hearts racing.
Ninety seconds.
Wake the sleeping child.
Grab the baby.
Ninety seconds.
And also the walker, the wheelchair, the drip stand.
Ninety seconds.
Sprint, with a small child, dangling tubes connected to a ventilator.
Ninety seconds.
The heavy steel door thuds shut, keeping evil away
For ten minutes.
A mother in a hijab.
A father with a large kippah.
Doctors.
Nurses.
And in that sudden silence,
The tiny voice of a little girl:
“Mommy, did you see? I ran all the way, By myself!”