la dous ki vyen

i speak of palestine

I speak of Palestine by Robert L. Green,

I speak of your insistence
on believing what you’re told
to be so blind:
you must have learned
what not to know
to be so cold that you can say
“These people do belong
inside this tomb.”
They cannot move
or live
or eat
And, yes,
I speak of Palestine.

You cannot hold
its fate is just
and not be part
of grinding up
their bones and blood
to mix with desert earth
and olive oil
to build your state, your jail;
a wall surrounds
their place, like this:
a torture room
a starving field
a stolen home
a human shield
a bullet for a child
and poison gas on village streets
their food, their food!
Their food is gone
you cleanse
and push
and punish
taking what you want
to have for you alone.

We know it’s rape,
and though the world records
your names and deeds,
the future courts and trials
will not revive
the dead, displaced and missing.

And yes, I speak of Palestine.

“The believers, in their love, mercy, and kindness to one another are like a body: if any part of it is ill, the whole body shares its sleeplessness and fever. “
Prophet Muhammad

Palestine is unusual in the history of nations—it has been under military occupation for 55 years, its people undergoing constant persecution and torture, while the rest of the world has simply stood by and watched. There are four and a half million Palestinians living in Palestine, yet you cannot find it on a map. You may wish to call someone in Palestine – say, in Gaza — but not be able to find an international code in the phone book. You may wish to mail a letter to Palestine, but the post office clerk will tell you that there is no listing for this country. There are five million refugees from Palestine, yet they belong neither to the country they’re in, nor the country they came from, because it isn’t recognized.

The culture of the past hundred years in Palestine has been one of resistance.
A land may be occupied, but people who have lived on that land for thousands of years cannot simply be erased. Resistance will confront the oppressor by day, and haunt him at night.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 11:16 am. It is filed under poetry and tagged with Gaza, Palestine, Robert L. Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.