HEAR THE SILENCE

“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport.” (King Lear, 4.1. 37–38)

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/4/there-is-nowhere-safe-for-children-to-go-in-gaza

Veils of disguise,
shield our eyes
from the nakba,
from the human wreckage

Journalists targeted
children ripped apart
people degraded
picked off by snipers
the cruelty virus of today
will have its way
and will return, magnified

Spit it out
signs and wonders
on this blood-soaked land ~
their names will spread
across the seas,
across the centuries -

Right in my core
nestle
these things I can’t recall:
but I know
where silence predominates,

in this empty,
clock-chiming hall.
like never before
we live,
like shadows on the dance floor,

like strobe lights on the ceiling
we lose our common humanity
all remnants of fellow-feeling.