Tisha b’Av comes to us more often than it used

Either because the years are shorter from Av to Av

Or because disaster has lost its historical costume

And, in modern dress, hovers at our shoulders.

How often do they breach our walls?

Babylon, Rome, the Russian Pale, the Reich

Which did not need a thousand years

To destroy the diasporic Temple of our lives

Now those fierce sons of Ishmael come forth

No more joining us in our bronze age tent

To sit shiva for Abraham our father

But tearing apart our defensive walls

Creating the  ninth of Av on Simchat Torah

Never again can we quite rejoice on 22 Tishri

The nations call us pariah, they turn away

Untouched by our lamentations

Bored by the jeremiad of our lives

Every day I say Shomer Yisrael, Guardian of Israel,

Shemor she’erit Yisrael, Guard the remnant of Israel,

Ve’al yovad Yisrael, And suffer not Israel to perish.