For Gaza Now Swallowed by Storm (A Lament)

“In the street in Gaza, on a gravestone (made of a wooden board, probably from a damaged closet), they wrote: ‘Unknown martyr, a decaying corpse, wearing training suit and an olive green jacket.’ The world must stop here.”

 

“In the street in Gaza, on a gravestone (made of a wooden board, probably from a damaged closet), they wrote:

‘Unknown martyr, a decaying corpse, wearing training suit and an olive green jacket.’

The world must stop here.”

(Mosab Abu Toha @MosabAbuToha)

 

For those Ugly Men with their fists of power

our Bird of Hope flew brave

(but wingless)

into

their storm

(of wrath

and death and fury).

 

Below her, see, nine thousand children

their hearts all lost

and stolen by

thieves

 

but their burnt and

buried bodies

are angels

high

over the noise

of war and catastrophe.

 

O, see, below, how a proud nation

is turned into stone and sorrow…

 

At night i hear their ghosts

whispering this lament

(for a world littered with lies):

 

No none will rise from the dead

not a soul will be saved.

In this war bigger-than-words we have

buried all decency in hatred and despair,

this promised land, in plague and pestilence,

ghetto, pogrom and bloodbath.

 

Oh, better to have your tongue torn out

than drink poison with these Statesmen and

Generals.

Better to die a Martyr than break bread

with the Butchers.

Better to be born blind than see another

generation suffer its descent…over and over

(how many times, now, Palestine,

in 75 years?).

 

Oh, better to live as a ghost than this cold stone

with its blades all sharpened on revenge.

 

And here,

where so few can still find

a safe place

to hide

 

let it be known

after the killing comes to an end

after the Bird of Hope finds its weary way home

when even this scourge of storms has surrendered

and the killers are all dead and gone

 

“we, the People, will still be Here…”

 

séamas carraher

december 29-31, 2023

 

Image

Gravestone – “Unknown martyr”

from Mosab Abu Toha @MosabAbuToha

https://twitter.com/MosabAbuToha

 

NOTES

 

“we, the People will still be Here…”

“I am from here . . . I saw my guts looking upon me through the corn fuzz.

I saw my memory counting the seeds of this field and the martyrs within it.

I am from here. I am right here . . . I comb the olives in this autumn.

I am from here. And here I am. That’s what my father shouted: I am from here.

And here I am. I am I. And here is here. I am I. And I am here. Here

I am. And I am I. Here I am. I am here. And here I am. I am I . . .

Then echo approached. Broke the vastness. Its resurrection rose. An echo

finding an echo. And echo resounded: Forever here forever here . . .

(‘Take Care of the Stags, Father’, by Mahmoud Darwish from Eleven Planets, 1992)

 

“Proud Nation…”

“(With reference to Palestinians in Ottoman times) Although proud of their Arab heritage and ancestry, the Palestinians considered themselves to be descended not only from Arab conquerors of the seventh century but also from indigenous peoples who had lived in the country since time immemorial, including the ancient Hebrews and the Canaanites before them. Acutely aware of the distinctiveness of Palestinian history, the Palestinians saw themselves as the heirs of its rich associations.” (Walid Khalidi, 1984, Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876–1948. Institute for Palestine Studies)

Wikipedia-Promised Land

 

More than 8,663 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/12/28/photos-gaza-children

Gaza’s health ministry says 22,185 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza since October 7.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/2/israeli-bombardment-ongoing-as-death-toll-surpasses-22000

 

“I wish I were a candle in the darkness.” Mahmoud Darwish Reading

 

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