Monday, October 30, 2023

Israel... Gaza... Gaza... Israel...

 If I seem at times to be lurching back and forth 

with every change in the news

It's because I am

It's because

there is no shortage of horrors.

I see photos of children taking shelter in Israel

From Hamas gunmen and rockets

Their parents trying to distract them

With coloring books

To keep their minds off the fear 

Of impending murder

And I seem to see

My own nephew hiding there.

I see photos of 

Children in white shrouds

Dead from the latest IDF bomb

I see their faces exposed

And I seem to see

My own infant niece lying there.

I don't know what it means

I don't know what to do

All I know

Is that those who defend

Hamas's murders

That those who excuse

The slaughter of children

And so too those who say

On the other side

That all the IDF bombs 

Can only be justified

All I can say

Is to repeat the words

Of Stephen Spender's poem: 

That "no cause is just

Unless it guards the innocent

As sacred trust."

This we must 

Remember

It is all

We have 

To go on.

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