loss

God scolds Job's friends for claiming to be wise
as if they'd mastered what no Man can know
profering succor in half-truths and lies
because some greybeard mentor said it's so.
Our fondest hopes invested in our herds,
and flocks, and children playing in the sun
confronting loss seem utterly absurd
each time a life is so  untimely done.
Intoning eykhah yearly, on the floor
we call to mind the remnant who survived
the persecutions by the worlds of yore
to garner strength for us, today, alive.
If there's an answer, it's community
Eli, eli, lamah azavtani?