my friend turns forty
the age his father died
he mutters
the Grim Reaper haunts me
like my walking shadow
breaking news
at the first light of spring dawn
my friend's stooped back
bends a little further
from grief after grief
thick foggy air
with no sun visible
my friend murmurs
how many mornings are left
for me with something new
my friend dies
alone in his attic room
but the shade of death
has been always on his mind
since his mother hung herself
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXI: "aid worker"
please bury me
with no casket, no prayers
face down, away
from this shrapnel-filled world:
the note in an aid worker's hand
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXII: "Holocaust Remembrance Day "
written in response to Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day, evening of Sunday, May 5, 2024 – Monday, May 6, 2024, observed by the State of Israel and many Jews around the world)
And inspired by the following remark by Marek Edelman, the deputy commander of the "Warsaw Ghetto" Uprising and the only leader to survive the war
To be a JEW means always being with the Oppressed and never the oppressors.
a standstill
for two minutes in Israel ...
fifty miles away
fighter jet after fighter jet
silencing everything below
FYI: This is a sequel to my tanka below:
for Phil Chernofsky, author of And Every Single One Was Someone ("Holocaust Told in One Word, 6 Million Times," Jodi Rudoren's review)
line upon line
page after page
the word
Jew
six million times
And in contrast with the following entry:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XI: "Holocaust"
written on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
in response to UN top court's/ICJ's genocide case against Israel ruling
and for Jewish Israelis
Aftermath
blot out Amalek ...
clutching his bible a rabbi
lost in thought
Holocaust Remembrance
Together We Will Win
[peace... peace only]
candlelight virgil
a tattooed survivor holds
a Stop the War sign
And The Nation, May 7: Biden Must Condemn Israel’s Attack on Al Jazeera—Now
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government shut down the network’s operations in Israel. Press freedom advocates are raising an outcry, and Americans should back them up.
Netanyahu’s decision—which came just two days after World Press Freedom Day—has been condemned by the leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz (“Israel Must Not Shut Down Al Jazeera”)
Middle East historian Assal Rad posted images from Rafah with the message, “This is why Israel is shutting down Al Jazeera. They don’t want us to see what they’re going to do in Rafah, the last refuge for Palestinians in Gaza,” while former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said, “Israel’s banning of Al Jazeera is one aspect of its War On Truth. It aims at preventing Israelis from knowing what goes on in Gaza.”
