KATYUSHA – A “love” poem for Gaza

Global Rights - Palestine

1

Here is a girl keeps me awake

at night.

 

She slips silent to my bedroom

in the dark

when everyone

sleeps

 

when all our friends

have fled

 

she slides softly between the sheets

with a hand on my beating heart

“make war – not love”, she

whispers seductively

 

“our world has grown

much too much bitter

for anything else”...

...8

“Katy”, I said, (if that is your name)

“why do we make war and not love

any more?”

 

“Go ask the Generals.

Go ask the Politicians in their

well-dressed suit-and-lies.

Go ask the Money and its Masters,

their insane industry of profit and pain...” (Contd.)

 

Full Poem (& Links)

 (Our) HISTORY (is Theirs)

(Their) STORY (is Ours)

for all refugees and those who seek asylum

Global Rights 

 

1

 

There is this thin line called

the corpus callosum.

It transects both the geography

and blind terror

of a displaced mind.

 

There is, also,  Citizen,

this imaginary place

called East and West.

 

Here your patience must wait

for a future condemned

to be force-fed

on the futile fear of the mindless,

mediated now between the meridians

of thought and thoughtlessness.

 

If you woke alone in

this no-man's-land

it would hiss hatred

at your presence

like an angry snake

disturbed by its own

selfish sleep.

 

Here

we must all seek rest

somewhere between memory

and trauma

and the strange yet familiar

sound of screeching voices,

where nothing spoken will ever

make much sense.

 

Somehow here, mein Führer,

all our words are taken

hostage.

 

Our Being, already mute with the

chatter of speechlessness,

is now made unbearable with

the lobotomy of borders... (contd.)

"Refugees" Morris Topchevsky (1939-1940)

 

FULL POEM (& Links) 

 

Louis Guglielmi - Refugees (1939)

 genocide 

     https://globalrights.info/2024/09/genocide/

 

 

 

… “We are tormented by the silence of the world” Reverend Munther Isaac at the landmark Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, 25/12/23  (Video – Democracy Now 26/12/23)

 

"even the word sticks in the throat

chokes my strangled mouth

speechless

stabs its own heart with

a sullen funeral of solid

cold stone

 

it has lit a fire

that seethes slowly

in the murderous

minds

of these monsters

dressed

in their sharp-skinned

suits

 

with masks that mirror

their sickly scourge

of speech

sweetened with 

savagery and

contempt..."

Full Poem (& Links)

 January, 2024... at the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court, in The Hague, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC delivered her speech - condemning the Israeli state for the utter horror it has unleashed against Gaza. (Video : Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC At The Hague )

THIS PORNOGRAPHY They CALL “PEACE”

Tabreen School Building, Gaza City, 10th August, 2024,

the day Israel killed countless Palestinian children, women and men, sheltering in the School. 

THIS PORNOGRAPHY They CALL “PEACE”

 "When the voice of peace is kept in a cage with its mouth shut tight its tongue turning to stone its words tied in knots this cage where lies are weapons and common sense tells your kind neighbour to “shut the fuck up” when the voice of peace grows hoarse with the noise of airstrikes and the catastrophic cacophony of the screaming missiles (“these blankets contain body parts of civilians the Israeli army perpetrated a massacre - Anas Al Sharif in the bombed al-Tabin School School Building) when the voice of peace will soon no longer even be told to shut up nor beaten from the streets because these streets have swallowed all our dreams someone forgot to wake a long long time ago while the world was falling asleep... "

(Al Jazeera - August 10, 2024)

...in front of the TV screen when the music of peace is dressed in the business-as-usual of commodities in salesmen and arms dealers in press release and spokesmen when the sad strange music of peace is strangled at birth (“sheltering inside the school building victims were torn to pieces and medical teams collected the body parts that were scattered all over as we speak” -  Anas Al Sharif) when the cry of peace turns into a child torn to pieces or her speechless father and mother giving birth in a bloodbath (“paramedics say that they haven't been able to find a dead body that is still whole” - Anas Al Sharif) when the cruel crimes of peace are celebrated by billionaires and bankers and butchers in luxury hotels and dined on countless disasters and the pitiless philosophy of power and profit (“the school building is strewn with body parts and paramedics say that they haven't been able to find a dead body that is still whole” - Anas Al Sharif)...

(Al Jazeera)

Global Rights - Full Poem (& Links)

 A Letter from the Dead

 

Tehran, July 31, 2024 

On the day of the death of Ismail Haniyeh - assassinated in Tehran, the capital of Iran, in the early hours of Wednesday

A Letter From The Dead

"Who can name this country we have just entered?

Its language is now without the words that were torn

from our throats

when the missile tears the room we are talking in

– to pieces.

 

Who can tell us where we have arrived?

Paradise or a promise of Revolution, a

Promised Land of justice and compassion?

An end to cruelty and oppression.

An end to wrath, retribution and revenge?

 

Still

this Place is a refuge where silence falls

like rain

on the flowers and the trees

who carry the voices of those

we have left behind."

 

Global Rights - Full Poem (& Links) 

Gaza, Palestine

 Another Unwritten Lament

Gaza, Palestine - Another Unwritten Lament 

"Here a god wretched with wrath walks.

Here without mercy or redemption a savage 

religion with a voice of thunder.

Here desolation descends among the people

like a prophet from the old bible:

(My son, I buried him here

with my own hands...

I found your grave, Saleh.

I found your grave, my beloved son.)"

 

(Middle East Eye - July 12, 2024) 

The Lament

 “I found your grave, my beloved son.”

A Palestinian mother bids farewell to her son

 “My son is here

O Saleh, Oh Saleh

– there is no god but God

May God be pleased with you,

Saleh.

 

My son, I buried him here

with my own hands…

I found your grave, Saleh.

I found your grave, my beloved son.

 

My soul, my son, the joy of

my heart.

My beloved son.

My soul.

My Heart.

My beloved.

 

I swear my son, I cannot

sleep at night

when you come to my mind.

I swear my son, I cannot sleep at night.

 

The joy of my heart, Salah.

The joy of my heart.

My dear, my precious, my light.

My handsome Salah, the light of my life.

 

God willing. my son, you are

in the highest ranks of paradise.

 

My dear, I am patient.

I entrusted you to God my dear.

And I did what you wanted, my soul.

But I am saddened.”

(Anonymous)

 -----  

"In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip. A report from Feb 7, 2024, at the time when the direct death toll was 28 000, estimated that without a ceasefire there would be between 58 260 deaths (without an epidemic or escalation) and 85 750 deaths (if both occurred) by Aug 6, 2024."  

The Lancet (July 5, 2024)

 Global Right - Full Poem (& Links)

ELEGY

for al-Shifa Hospital

Global Rights - Elegy for al-Shifa Hospital

1.

 

Dread rains on my roof with

its pictures of death and destruction.

Sorrow and her sister, terror, come visit

with their shrill symphonies of pain.

“Famine looms, disease outbreaks spread

and trauma injuries increase”  the

noisy radios boast.

 

i tried reason with the pictures.

Tried turn the sound right down on the radio.

Tried to pull the plug from the wall, bury

my head in the sand, tried it all.

 

Tried to pry their heartless hands from

strangling my throat

 

“...some of the victims had their hands tied and they were buried alive and others according to eyewitness accounts were crushed with tanks and what appears to be an attempt to cover up evidence...”

 

ELEGY for al-Shifa Hospital - FULL POEM 

 

Al-Shifa Hospital ‘an empty shell with human graves’: WHO

April 6, 2024 – “WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the UN agency and other partner organisations have managed to reach the medical complex in Gaza City following Israel’s deadly two-week siege. “The team witnessed at least five dead bodies during the mission. Most of the buildings in the hospital complex are extensively destroyed and the majority of assets are damaged or reduced to ashes. Even restoring minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible,” he said in a post on X. “An in-depth assessment by a team of engineers is needed to determine if the remaining buildings are safe for future use. WHO and partners’ recent effort to support the revival of basic services at al-Shifa are now lost, and people are once again deprived of access to lifesaving health care services.””

Al Jazeera – April 7, 2024

 

A Ceasefire Fell

like an Angel Shot from the Sky

 https://globalrights.info/2024/04/a-ceasefire-fell-like-an-angel-shot-from-the-sky/

"Mere minutes after the UN Security Council voted 14 to 1

(a solitary America raising the Flag of Abstention like

a marker over a mass-grave),

voted unanimously for the much needed - if temporary –

ceasefire to the savage slaughter of the Palestinian people

in the grim ghetto of Gaza

 

the sun broke through a catastrophe of clouds and

showered all the fearful faces with nameless blessings.

 

Even the dead tried stir from their restless sleep

to spread the news.

The children unpacked their tormented toys buried now

for over five months in rubble and broken body parts, in

desperation and debris

 

and even Hunger itself seemed

to denounce this meaningless and murderous fast

 

…when Algeria and Guyana, when Mozambique and Sierra Leone,

finally decided to say

No! Basta! Enough! Nunca Mas! No more! Never Again!

to this savage slaughter of helpless beings..."

(...contd.)  

 

Global Rights - Talking Peace - Palestine  (Full Poem)

“…It is a historic day today where for the first time after almost 6 months the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire…:” 

 

 Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations 

Palestine's Response to UN unanimous Vote for Ceasefire 

CURSE

 In A Time of Endless War

Curse?

A child's tears before the blows fall

In Mariupol or Khan Younis.

These laughing soldiers with their

teeth reeking of human flesh.

This small unborn baby, already emaciated.

A hundred thousand body parts stored in the

speechless rubble.

Another child's terror drowning in daylight.

 

Curse is now the prayer promised

by both diplomats and presidents with

their handshakes that have starved thousands.

 

Curse is a name for the silence left

after all decent tongues are ripped out

and replaced with a madman's microphone.

 

Curse?

These poisoned feasts of propaganda

the prime minister prepares for a famished people.

Curse them all / Mallacht Dé ort

Go dteachta na bréachra thú / May their lies

choke them!

 

CURSE. In A Time of Endless War (Full Poem)

 

“This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who described as “staggering” the latest Gaza health authority data indicating that at least 12,300 youngsters have died in the enclave in the last four months, compared with 12,193 globally between 2019 and 2022." United Nations - 13, March 2024

 

 

Irish potato "Famine" (depicted - 1849)

 

"Once, they said, it was better to

light a candle than curse the darkness.

 

Then the rockets came."

 

GLOBAL RIGHTS - Human Rights