Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XV: "Gaza's night sky"
written in response to Salon, Commentary, Nov. 15, 2023: "Good times for the military-industrial complex": American arms makers cashing in on conflict: But is it truly the arsenal of democracy?
Gaza's night sky
a ghastly shade of red ...
at the screen's bottom
the news ticker announces
Raytheon stock soars
FYI: The Raytheon Company was a major U.S. defense contractor, and it supplies the Israeli government with a wide variety of weapons, including various missiles and bombs
And this tanka could be read as a sequel to the following one:
This Brave New World, CX
Kidnapped
pasted over Occupier
pasted over Kidnapped
above the photo of a man ...
this battle for perfect victims
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XVI: "mound of stones"
a mound of stones
near the entrance to Re'im
clicking of cameras
FYI: [Israeli Oldest and Most Progressive Newspaper]Haaretz, Jan. 25: On Your Right, a Massacre Site: October 7 Atrocity Tourists Are Flocking to Southern Israel: Alongside the solidarity and remembrance, some fear that Gaza border communities will become museums, that memorialization will cover up reminders of the massacres, and that sites will be grotesquely commercialized.
...many in the military and the government encourage continued tours for soldiers, "Journalists, Foreign Politicians, and Influencers of various kinds." "There is a difference between seeing it on TV and physically being there on the ground and seeing it with your own eyes," says a senior official involved in managing the military's communications with the kibbutzim. "But I understand the voices in the kibbutzim saying that they don't want to live in a Holocaust museum."
And within the Jewish faith, it is customary to place a small stone on the grave as a sign to others that someone has visited the grave.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XVII: "animal feed"
at the border
raging waves of aid protests...
a circle of children
nibbling pita bread
baked from animal feed
FYI: Associated Press, Feb. 7: "More than half a million of Gaza's population is facing catastrophic hunger conditions, report finds"
Israeli Newspaper, Haaretz, Feb. 8: When Pita Made of Animal Feed Is Your Best-case Scenario
Haaretz, Feb. 8: Blinken Cancels Gaza Crossing Visit After Israel Doesn't Commit to Stopping Aid Protests: The U.S. Secretary of State was supposed to evaluate the passage of aid trucks from Israel to Gaza firsthand, but the visit was cancelled due to fear that protesters would be present, stopping aid trucks from entering Gaza
And Reuters, Feb. 9: Almost 10% of Gaza's under-fives now acutely malnourished, according to initial U.N. data from arm measurements that show physical wasting.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XVIII: "Rafah"
attacks on Rafah ...
will the sound of bombings
echo, echoing
in the ears of the World
thousands of miles away
FYI: CNN, Feb. 12: Israeli airstrikes kill more than 100 in Rafah as international alarm mounts over anticipated ground offensive.
More than 1.3 million people — more than half of Gaza’s population — are seeking refuge in Rafah (an area of around 171 square kilometres no longer a city but a refugee camp on the brink of catastrophe), with the majority of people displaced from other parts of the besieged enclave crammed into a sprawling tent city.
And Associated Press, Feb. 13: Israeli forces "rescue 2 hostages" in Dramatic Gaza raid that "killed at least 67 Palestinians"
The overnight bombardment brought devastation in Rafah, which is packed with some 1.4 million people, most of whom fled their homes elsewhere in Gaza to escape fighting.
Added: Game Show 2024, XXXV
After/math of the Real and the Magically Real
questions
after shouted questions
in glaring light
to the clicking of cameras
Biden asks, what's the question?
goose-stepping phalanxes
of Trump, Trump-lites and Trump wannabes
on the campaign trail
USA! USA! their mouths open, close
devouring each other
FYI: The second tanka is the first one written in the style of magical realism. And For more examples, see "To the Lighthouse: Magical Realism in Times of Crises"
Added: Game Show 2024, XXXVI
a sequel to the first tanka of After/math of the Real and the Magically Real
amid the rapid
give-and-take with reporters
the President
muddles up wars, forgets names
and calls out someone, long dead
