Opinion

Red

A poem

Kfir Bibas, 10 months. Credit: Courtesy of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Kfir Bibas, 10 months. Credit: Courtesy of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Elaine Rosenberg Miller
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 opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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