As this poem came to mind I thought of the explosions in Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, which on 4 August 2020, several explosions at the Port left at least 50 people dead, more than 2,700 injured, many more missing and thousands homeless. The scale of the damage was immense, with buildings miles from the port lying in ruin. impacting a country already on the brink of financial collapse.
Rains White Phosphorous Here
1/17/12
Travel with me to the land of sad oranges.
Here children play in refugee camps. Grey, grey the buildings along the narrowest streets.
Stench of garbage, cesspools of sewage no sun, no trees.
Rains white phosphorous here where missiles fall.
White rain burns the skin and organs die.
I am haunted by their faces, eyes speak the unspeakable.
I have seen it all before.
I want to tell them soon it will be over
This tragedy for which there is no forgiveness.
They wonder who I am and so
I show a peace sign, as if to say I am a friend.
“Viva Palestina” they echo after me.
Imagine what it is like for me
Refugee from nazi madness,
To see AGAIN proud people
Demonized as evil, driven from their land, ripped from their roots.
Grimmest of war stories.
Unimaginable horror, collective punishment, life unsustainable
As if we did not know already, how nationalism in it’s cruelest form
Is born of twisted hate and ideology
To cloud all forms of reason.
Sometimes I feel I have lost all reason,
That I simply dream this nightmare of Israel, echo of “death to all Jews.”
Now, “Palestinians don’t exist.”