In the past 127 days I’ve experienced

The death of a friend

The death of a black and white cat called Echo

The death of another friend’s nine-year old son in a freakish accident

The death of Israeli teenagers at a music festival

The death of countless Palestinian children

following the death of Israeli teenagers

as if the latter somehow atoned for the former

The death of a Ukrainian poet on the frontlines

of the war that I once had thought would last only a couple of weeks

but now I feel as if it would last forever, until it swallows the every last one of us.

Nothing will ever make any of it right

Nothing will ever atone

So, instead of fighting over who of us hurts the most

Can we sit together in wordless mourning

In an ancient ritual of sadness, love and humanity.