Memorial Day for the War Dead by Yehuda Amichai

Memorial day for the war dead.  Add now
the grief of all your losses to their grief,
even of a woman that has left you.  Mix
sorrow with sorrow, like time-saving history,
which stacks holiday and sacrifice and mourning
on one day for easy, convenient memory.

Oh, sweet world soaked, like bread,
in sweet milk for the terrible toothless God.
“Behind all this some great happiness is hiding.”
No use to weep inside and to scream outside.
Behind all this perhaps some great happiness is hiding.

Memorial day.  Bitter salt is dressed up
as a little girl with flowers.
The streets are cordoned off with ropes,
for the marching together of the living and the dead.
Children with a grief not their own march slowly,
like stepping over broken glass.

The flautist’s mouth will stay like that for many days.
A dead soldier swims above little heads
with the swimming movements of the dead,
with the ancient error the dead have
about the place of the living water.

A flag loses contact with reality and flies off.
A shopwindow is decorated with
dresses of beautiful women, in blue and white.
And everything in three languages:
Hebrew, Arabic, and Death.

A great and royal animal is dying 
all through the night under the jasmine 
tree with a constant stare at the world.

A man whose son died in the war walks in the street
like a woman with a dead embryo in her womb.
“Behind all this some great happiness is hiding.”

Memorial Day

Vacation Approaches!

I got word yesterday that Hubby's time off was approved, so he and I will be making the trek from central Florida to central Illinois via car for a long Memorial Day weekend!

Our plan is to leave on Wednesday, May 20 by 5:30 p.m.  We'll drive for at least six hours (hopefully more), then stop for the night and finish the trip on Thursday.  We'll be with my family Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, then we'll be leaving around midday on Monday, May 25, and should get back home sometime Tuesday evening.

I have a lot to do before next Wednesday afternoon, both in and out of the office.  Not only do Hubby and I need to get ready for our road trip, but his best friend is on his way to Orlando to spend a few days, so I'm trying to get things ready for his visit, as well.

It will be wonderful to see my family!  It's been a long time.  I haven't seen my grandmother and brother since December 2007, I haven't seen my mom and sister since May 2008, and I haven't seen my other brother since July 2008.  That's far too long for me!

This is a much-needed vacation!  I just hope I can get my office work done in time so I don't have too much to take with me next week.