Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXXVI: "evacuation orders"
in smoky twilight
one evacuation order
after another ...
death upon death while the world
looks at us, but doesn't see us
FYI: Ls 4&5 allude to the following remark:
I was looked at, but I wasn’t seen.
--Albert Camus, The Outsider/Stranger, 1942
This tanka is a sequel to the following:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XCVII: "evacuation"
after Jane Reichhold
Gaza evacuation
bombed-out ruins
after
bombed-out ruins
This haiku could be read as a sequel to my tanka prose, "The Smell of Sorrow," nominated by the Tanka Society of America for the Pushcart Press Competition.
And ABC News, Dec. 18: Israel orders another Gaza evacuation ahead of an offensive
The Israeli military has ordered another evacuation in central Gaza ahead of an offensive in the area, even as Israel and the militant group Hamas appear to inch closer to a ceasefire.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXXVII: "screams"
pause between bombings ...
scream after scream stretching
this wintry night
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXXVIII: "this Gazan, Khaled Nabhan"
for Khaled Nabhan
laying his beard
on his dead granddaughter's cheek
he strokes her air
hugs and kisses her again ...
this Gazan doesn't cry, but I cry
FYI: Haaretz, Opinion, Dec.19: Israel's Shameful Mocking of the Palestinian Grandfather Who Symbolized Gaza's Pain
Khaled Nabhan is no more. The grandfather who never cried, as if he begged us to cry in his place, the grandfather who made us all cry.
And Haaretz, Dec. 19: Palestinian 'Grieving Grandfather' From Viral Video Killed in an Israeli Attack in Central Gaza: Khaled Nabhan, the man who cradled his slain granddaughter in a viral video last year, was reportedly killed this week in Nuseirat refugee camp by an IDF tank shell
