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Beleaguered Daughter of Zion
Oh Israel, long-suffering Israel!
That for long bitter years had to contend
With forces darkly seeking to expel
And drive you from your promised Holy Land
Surrounded by sinister entities,
Your children cannot see spring blossoms bloom
And in your leisure places bomb shell whiz
Your ears are deafened with the deadly boom.
At last you found your haven, - your own land
As promised by your God of Israel,
But lo! they wish to drive you out to sea
Encroaching on your Land of Jacob’s well.
You tilled and ploughed the barren land for fruit,
And irrigated it so it would yield
A crop abundant, but your children’s blood
Is spilled and stains the cultivated field.
Oh Israel, long suffering Israel!
Where zealots to the chin are steeped in blood,
Where terror sheik fanatics shriek and yell,
And hop-o'-my-thumbs as living bomb recruit
Where the fanatic Islamist compels
By virtue of “spiritual authority",
Mere babes to wear the belt with bombing shells,
As path to paradise’s felicity.
Ah! twenty shekels is an awful lot,
By far too much to enter paradise,
True heroes ought to smilingly explode,
Gratuitously.- to win the Martyr’s prize.
With promises of Virgins Seventy
To please the martyrs with sweet services
On fluffy eiderdowns and pads - whoopee!
Who could withstand such luring promises?
But more, - the Virgins Seventy provide
In dainty vessels naphtha-glycerin,
And pouches that hold sticks of dynamite,
As shield to well protect the virgins’ skin.
Oh Israel, God's most own Israel!
With armies disciplined, adept and fleet,
But though your soldiers fight so brave and well
With Seventy Virgins no-one can compete.!
Oh Israel, Oh Holy Land take heed!
And watch your town Megiddo with great care,
For Armageddon’s dawn the slumbering seed
May wake in time to hear the trumpet blare.
Elizabeth Dandy
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