Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LIX: "Rafah's border wall"
the kids stare
beyond Rafah's border wall
the slow descent
of a butterfly kite
severed from its string
FYI: Al Jazeera, Feb. 20: Kites fill Rafah’s skies, a symbol of hope amid Israel’s war on Gaza
In Rafah’s horrifically crowded camps, children find one bright spot of play and smiles, up in the skies above.
And this symbol of hope and its significance are articulated in Refaat Alareer's farewell poem:
Watch the Scottish actor Brian Cox read Refaat Alareer's poem, “If I Must Die,” posted on December 1, 2023 on Twitter/X, a heartbreakingly prophetic farewell poem that has now been translated into more than 40 languages.
“If I Must Die” by Refaat Alareer
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze –
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself –
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LIX: "amputee"
written in response to The New Yorker, March 21, 2024: More than a thousand children who were injured in the war are now amputees. What do their futures hold?
clenching
the toothbrush in his teeth
a Gazan boy
squeezes the tube left-handed
before his cracked mirror
FYI: The Wall Street Journal, March 18:Gaza Amputees Fight for Survival in Hospitals Hollowed Out by War
Doctors, running low on painkillers and antibiotics, struggle to treat thousands of Palestinians who have lost limbs
And most importantly, The Amputee Crisis in Gaza BEFORE October 7th, 2023
For example, in 2019, Israeli forces open-fired on Palestinian protestors resulting in 120 amputations, 20 of which were children.
To help with the amputee crisis in Gaza, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) has created the Gaza Amputee Project to help provide surgery, treatment, and prostheses for child amputees.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LX: " Israeli flag vs keffiyeh"
still still, face to face ...
one man with an Israeli flag
and one in a keffiyeh
FYI: Haaretz, May 1: 'A Voice Louder Than Their Bombs': For Gazans, U.S. Campus Protests Are Cause for Hope
We wanted to thank them with messages written on our tents, since we cannot display them on the walls of our homes, which have collapsed over our head
Added:
my old dog moves
from one patch of sunshine
to another ...
this lonely April weekend
chills me to the bone
