Boston Requiem: She is No Hagar
Banished, alone and left out in the desert to die, Hagar sat down far away from Ishmael, her son, and said ”Let me not look on the death of the child.” She lifted up her voice to God and wept.
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy drink.
And God said: As for Ishmael, your son, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. I will make him into a great nation.
(Genesis 21:16- 17-20)
She suckled her sons
On hatred,
Cut their teeth on terrorism
She is no Hagar.
She could have offered them
Freedom
To choose
Lives of honor
In America,
Far away from Kyrgyzstan’s
Fundamentalist flames.
Her legacy,
Her progeny:
Boston bombers—
Making her
Mother of the Marathon
Murderers.
For her sons:
No water, no blessings.
Only a great nation, wounded.
Mohammed hides
His face
From her.
Islam is ashamed.
She is no Hagar.
Lynne Appel
© 2013
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