A Poem for Gaza

 

(after the Slaughter resumed)

 

“I was hoping I could bake bread

and feed those who are hungry.

Gaza’s people are our family, our children, our girls,

I swear if I had a home

I’d put them there in my embrace.

May God protect them.”

Survivor, in Gaza’s Southern town of Khuza’a

(during the temporary ceasefire)

 

Someone took the words

right out of my mouth

– i said: “time to shut up”

the thieves on the TV

have stolen all the words.

“Worse”, i say…

They have taken the heart from the body

and left a fucking corpse in its place.

 

In my dreams

I pass this corpse (without words or a heart)

always dying on a street with its hospitals on fire.

In my dream (which is not really a dream at all!)

i watch the incinerated corpses

of words and orphaned Palestinian children

hanging from these cruel mouths

after the bloody soldiers have left and

taken their rage and poison with them.

 

Here another voice says:

“just shut up, anti-Semite!”,  “what

would you know about it”, in your cave

on the edge of a continent!

 

This faceless voice, with its friends-in-power,

the ones that have squatted in the

skull of an honest man for far too long!

These lying voices that have learnt how to

imitate life!

This voice that was de-educated to become

a politician, a statesman, a diplomat!…

 

So even though i am dreaming

with the cries of children trying to wake me up

i know i am really awake.

 

i am awake and this heaving in my chest

(of fire and blood and war

and the amputated hands of

the helping doctors)

has told me

 

these soldiers and their masters have come.

They have come and taken all the words

right out of my mouth.

They have stolen them

to go rot in their cruel bibles.

 

They have replaced them now

with the corpses of these children

and the mothers

left lying on the street

with their sad faces

all blown away.

 

séamas carraher

1 – 5 december, 2023

 

Note

“The bombardment resumed in both north and south Gaza, minutes after the Hamas-Israel truce expired”.

Al Jazeera, 1 December, 2023

 

Moments after Israeli air strikes in northern Gaza

 

“What happened while we were sitting

we saw the air strike come

 

how it happened and where it came from

we don’t know

we don’t know anything

and here it is all of our children

and everything is gone

 

why we don’t know…

there’s nothing.

 

I am known

that I do not lean

towards this side or that side

 

Allah will provide solace…”

 

Survivor, near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Northern Gaza

 

Image

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem on May 25, 2021.

[State Department photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Video

“We are fighting against human animals”. This is how Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced what he called a “complete siege” on Gaza, following a surprise attack by Hamas on Israel.

Al Jazeera, October, 2023

 

Updates

 

“According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, between 7 October and 3 December, at least 15,523 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, about 70 per cent of whom are said to be women and children. Many more are missing, presumably under the rubble, waiting for rescue or recovery.

 

According to OCHA, since 7 October, 244 Palestinians, including 65 children, have been killed by Israeli Forces in the West Bank. In addition, eight people, including one child, have been killed by Israeli settlers.

 

Nearly 1.9 million people (or over 85 per cent of the population) have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

 In total, almost 1.2 million displaced people are now sheltering in 156 UNRWA installations.”

UNRWA – 4 December, 2023

 

Permissive airstrikes on non-military targets – An Investigation

+972 Magazine

 

Since October 7, more than 3,257 children have been reported killed, including at least 3,195 in Gaza, 33 in the West Bank, and 29 in Israel,

Save The Children

 

More kids killed in Gaza in 3 weeks than all global conflict annually since 2019, Save the Children says

CBC Radio

 

Why Israel’s military wanted to end the Gaza truce, and what now?

Al Jazeera, 1 December, 2023

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