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Red

A poem

Kfir Bibas
Kfir Bibas, 10 months. Credit: Courtesy of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Elaine Rosenberg Miller has written for many online and print publications, including Jerusalem Record, The Forward, The Jewish Press and The Times of Israel. Her books can be found at Amazon.

I have always loved red hair.

It sparkles like the sun’s rays on a running stream.

Locks of crimson, scarlet, even pomegranate drew my eye.

There are no redheads in my family.

I used to dream (hope) I would have a redheaded child, even though my husband had the black hair, eyebrows and eyes of a figure in a Fayum mummy painting.

Our son was born with sable hair. By his eighth week, it had fallen out and he was bald. I would carry him to the window to try to see the new color. No dice and I gave up. After a while, it came in honey blonde.

Our next son did have dark red hair and I thought “Voila!” It fell out too and grew back platinum.

I continued to admire redheads.

I loved to see photos of redhead festivals. One didn’t know where to look first! It was a cornucopia of color!

The fiery-colored Bibas brothers and their mother are presumed dead.

Their coral hair probably helped mark them for death. They had just become too iconic, too well-known, too loved.

If we close our eyes, we can see the baby laugh in wonder and joy at a toy or a funny face.

Then, we wake.

The U.S. president warned that the U.S. military will begin targeting Iranian power plants and bridges on Tuesday if the Strait of Hormuz is not opened.
Qassem Soleimani’s niece has reportedly expressed support for the Iranian regime on social media.
Hundreds of terror sites linked to Tehran and Hezbollah were hit over the weekend.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani flagged a “140% increase” in anti-Muslim hate crimes, though 58% of all hate crimes in the city targeted Jews.
The two men were hit by “friendly fire” during a nighttime raid.
The prime minister noted that the military campaign is moving along in full cooperation with the United States.