Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCIX: "Ceasefire: You Cease, I Fire"
Ceasefire: You Cease, I Fire
Boom, boom, boom ... trailed by intermittent night-piercing screams, near and far.
an armless boy's stare
midnight lightning links Heaven
and smoky ruins
hazy day moon
an orphaned girl, her world
of paper cranes
FYI: For more poems about Israel's war crimes, see Special Feature: "Selected Poems for Reflections on UN's Report on Israel Committing Genocide and Other War Crimes."
On June 18, 2026, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry published a major report titled “The essence of childhood has been destroyed: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023”.
The paper describes the deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian children, including post-ceasefire since the October 2025 Gaza peace plan. The Commission also examines a sharp increase in violence perpetrated by members of Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
There is no ceasefire in Gaza; the world has normalized the genocide of Palestinians.
-- Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine and author of UN Report, "Anatomy of a Genocide"
And
There comes a time when silence is betrayal.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
