From The River To The Sea

Speak

The sheer savagery
Of the butchers of Gaza
Leaves me speechless
But speechlessness
Is not an option
If we are not to
Normalise Genocide

Murder of the Olive Trees

I hear the thwack
Of knife on wood
And my blood pressure rises
And I know
Yes, I know that
My neighbour
(Whom we have nicknamed
The Rogue)
Is hacking at our trees

Likely

They are likely
Committing War Crimes
But
We can’t be sure
So
We can keep supplying them
With weapons
(Defensive weapons, mind you)
Until
We are sure they are
Committing War Crimes
And even then
We can’t be sure
That they are
Committing War Crimes
With the weapons we supplied
(Defensive weapons, mind you)
So…

Parental Concerns

As we lie awake
In bed at night
Our thoughts go out
To our sons:
Is the older one taking care
To stay warm?
It is cold where he is
And when he is engrossed in work…
Is the younger one
Drinking enough water 
In this Heat Wave?
Will he remember to
Stay well hydrated
In the run-up to 
His endsem…

The Emperor’s New Clothes

The moral clarity 
Of the young
Has cut rapier-like
Through the double-speak
And intentional obfuscation
Of those in charge

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

(The world is one family)

To be able
To empathise with the suffering
Of people you cannot see
To grieve for a child, a parent
A brother, a sister
Not your own
To try to shine a light
On violence far away
Even as you face violence
Here and now
To do…

Oppression

The more I write
The less I am read
The more the numbers
Coming out of Gaza
The more the numbness
In the world outside

Agency

The machine would
Have us believe that
You and I are small cogs
Replaceable
Of no consequence
In the scheme of things

Horror Upon Horror

Is there any great significance
In finding, today
A mass grave containing
210 corpses
And counting
In a land which is
A mass grave containing
34,151 corpses
And counting?