Shehecheyanu

We shuffled into the room,
Mimicking our guides in our head;
As if they couldn't read our faces;
Blindly echoing the disheartened cries
Of our predecessors
Until, at last, we saw the light
Emblazoned with wrath for no crime at all.

We instructed our children to hide
Like turtles forced to become hermits
But, they too were moths being escorted
Into the furnace - that pit of no return.
In this, the dawn and dusk of their time,
Always playing hide and seek,
Never to be found again.

We see the trench - that treacherous wasteland
To which we will unwillingly be united.
We squirm, we screech; a shriek, a screech of shrill voices
We have never since meant as we do now
"Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam
Shehecheyanu!"