Friday, March 22, 2024

CURSE

 In A Time of Endless War


Curse?

A child's tears before the blows fall

In Mariupol or Khan Younis.

These laughing soldiers with their

teeth reeking of human flesh.

This small unborn baby, already emaciated.

A hundred thousand body parts stored in the

speechless rubble.

Another child's terror drowning in daylight.

 

Curse is now the prayer promised

by both diplomats and presidents with

their handshakes that have starved thousands.

 

Curse is a name for the silence left

after all decent tongues are ripped out

and replaced with a madman's microphone.

 

Curse?

These poisoned feasts of propaganda

the prime minister prepares for a famished people.

Curse them all / Mallacht Dé ort

Go dteachta na bréachra thú / May their lies

choke them!

 

CURSE. In A Time of Endless War (Full Poem)

 

“This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who described as “staggering” the latest Gaza health authority data indicating that at least 12,300 youngsters have died in the enclave in the last four months, compared with 12,193 globally between 2019 and 2022." United Nations - 13, March 2024
 

 

"Once, they said, it was better to

light a candle than curse the darkness.

 

Then the rockets came."

 

GLOBAL RIGHTS - Human Rights 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

A Dictionary of (Palestinian) Silence

After UN ambassador for Palestine, Riyad Mansour, held back tears at the international court of justice hearing on Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories

 

1         

“In the beginning was the Word...”

(“...and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John said)

 

2         

Vindictive:

is the snipers bullet

 

3         

Terror:

these small children i see on my TV screen.

 

4         

Trauma:        

these same children, as each new day begins.

 

“And the light shines in darkness;

 and the darkness

comprehended it not.”

(John also said).


A Dictionary of (Palestinian) Silence (Full Poem)

...22      

Mathematics – On March 8, the Gaza Health Ministry defined          

Math as

Dead: 30,878

Injured: another 72,402

Missing: countless

In Fear & Flight: 1.7 million people (over 75 per cent of the population) ...30...

 

Global Rights - Talking Peace (Palestine) 

Ambassador Riyad Mansour

“…after more than 75 years of Nakba… 56 years of belligerent occupation… 17 years of blockade… and nearly 140 days of vindictive punitive Siege and massacres perpetrated by Israel in Gaza which is a genocide……what crimes has Israel not committed..?

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

 HUNGER (& the HATRED)

 

1

 

Hatred

like a wildfire

stalks the machinery of

my mercenary chest.

 

The blood,

well-armed in its rage

likewise pleads for revenge.

 

Night soon settles like

a smokescreen over this murderous heart

where a million mute massacres cry out

for redemption.

 

Who lit this fire that

sweeps whole worlds away?

Who forged these cruel contracts

signed in blood and retribution?

What bitter Bible blesses their ruthless laws?

And who, each day, lights the spark

on such senseless suffering?

 

And, tell me, Mr. Netanyahu

what merciless mother

would feed her children

on famine and starvation?

...

HUNGER (& the HATRED)   (Full Poem)

 

“There is no food to feed my children nor is there any bread… we came to the point where we are eating tree leaves we are eating the food of this donkey … you are asking me why did I come here I came because I want to take flour …look my leg is broken and I came to take flour I came to take flour … I came yesterday and people stepped over me I came today… even if I were to die I want to take a bag of flour because I can’t feed my children I don’t have anything to give my children to eat even if I die I will stay…”

(Democracy Now Interview, 1’56” – February 28, 2024)

"According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza as of 1 March, at least 30,228 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October. About 70 per cent of those killed are reported to be women and children. Another 71,377 Palestinians have been reportedly injured."

UNRWA Situation Report 85

 

"i’m telling you, people of Israel,

people of Palestine,

it will take more than 30,000

godforsaken funerals

to calm these troubled waters."

 

GLOBAL RIGHTS - HUMAN RIGHTS 

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Hind Rajab, Almost Six Years Old,

Gaza, Palestine: Dead.

(A Poem of Barbarism)

1

 

Who pulled the trigger on Hind Rajab?

Who pulled the trigger on her wounded cousin,

Layan Hamadeh, just 15-year-old?

Who fired the bullets that killed uncle and aunt?

Who sent death to collect all three cousins in the fleeing car?

What did the news say when their bodies

rose up from the fire to condemn this wretched world?

Who drove the tank

and who pointed the weapons?

Who loaded the guns and who paid

for the ammunition, the American shells,

the moving and immovable parts?

And who sleeps safe in their bed

each night these small children are driven,

like beasts, to their slaughter?

 

And who, endlessly, lectures us on human rights

from an English parliament, an American university, a German

holocaust memorial?

And, finally, who are these madmen-and-women

screaming antisemite antisemite

every time i blow my nose?

 

So I ask again:

who pulled the trigger that killed Hind Rajab, almost

6 years old, from Tal al-Hawa district, in southern Gaza City,

January 29, 2024?

Hind Rajab, Almost Six Years Old...(Poem) 

 2

 

Dear Hind Rajab, a chara mo chroí

your birthday is in May, i am told.

 

For a present if only i could wind

back the clocks and

slip so softly into this sleeping car

as night falls

and you ask: please come, quickly,

quickly “come take me. Please,

will you come?”

 

i could try hold you, falling

as we all fly away, together...

 

Monday, 29 January, 2024,

at about 5 p.m.

 

“This undated handout photograph obtained courtesy of the family shows six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab posing for a picture.”  (albawaba.com) 
Global Rights  (Full poem)

Hind Rajab's and Layan Hamadeh’s voice recorded 

Hind Rajab was trapped in a car "with the bodies of her parents and siblings, one of whom was killed while on the phone pleading for help" from the Palestinian  Red Crescent. 

Al Jazeera - 31 January, 2024

 

Also: The Palestine Red Crescent Society recording’s of a call from Hind Rajab reading Quran

Middle East Eye - 16 February, 2024

 

The body of six-year-old Hind Rajab is found by relatives

Middle East Eye - February 10, 2024


Wednesday, February 21, 2024

 In this Place of Tragedy

Mass grave discovered in northern Gaza “clearly a war crime”

On February 1, the bodies of 30 Palestinian civilians, blindfolded, handcuffed and tortured, previously detained by Israeli soldiers and then gone “missing”,  were found in a schoolyard inside black plastic bags. The fact that for a long time now Israel seems to act without any fear of criticism of - or responsibility for - its actions can be seen in the fact that the soldiers left these innocent civilians with the glaring-evidence of handcuffs that had serial numbers and words in Hebrew written on them...

Al Jazeera - February 1, 2024

In This Place of Tragedy (poem)

"...and here now, Mr Netanyahu

is the Promised Land of your Laughing Soldiers

your savage soldiers, these cowardly-killers,

whose bones are now pure poison

whose mothers will no longer recognise them

and whose only gift is to meet each new day

with the stench of sanctimonious suffering!"

Global Rights

 

"According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza as of 19 February, at least 29,092 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October. About 70 per cent of those killed are reported to be women and children. Another 69,028 Palestinians have been reportedly injured.

"As of 19 February, up to 1.7 million people (over 75 per cent of the population) have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some multiple times.Families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety. Following intense Israeli bombardments and fighting in Khan Younis and the Middle Area in recent days, a significant number of displaced people have moved further south."

UNRWA-Palestine 

Monday, February 19, 2024

War on Children

(Gaza, Palestine)

 1

 "The sound

of the singing shells

(in Gaza)

has taken the tongue

from its mouth.

 

Kill anything that moves,

the Israeli generals say…

 

In this darkest of rooms

the hands of the clock are beating

each day into my brain

like a nail,

the soundless silence crying

help, help, help!

 

But it is the children’s eyes

on the screen

that scares the noise away,

takes all the breath from the lungs.

 

It tears like a crazy person through

the walls of the house

and still no peace can come..."