ISRAEL VERBALLY BOMBS THE HAGUE

South Africa has long supported Palestine

should i listen
to Israel
presenting its case
against South Africa’s
charge of genocide
in Gaza ?

should i tune in
this morning
to the International Court of Justice
in the Hague ?

don’t i know
their lies
and false narrative
by heart –
do I need
to inflict
this self-torture
on myself ?

but then i thought
of all those
on the ground
trapped in Gaza
and the West Bank
undergoing their genocidal onslaught,
I thought of the unspeakable atrocities
my poems cannot even name
and I said to myself :
who are you
to shun
Israel’s verbal bombing
of the Hague ?

THE LAST STRAWS THE PEOPLE BROKE

i sit watching
joining in spirit
with South Africa
and
all the beloved countries
who –
understanding what Gaza is going through –
cry
march
and rise up
for her

Israel
picks and chooses
her favorite argument cherries,
cuts history into pieces,
tells us what to think
and explains to us
as the nazis did to my family
that this new holocaust does not exist,
that we are imagining it
that if we looked more carefully
we would find the long dead Gazan children
alive
and cared for
in non existant hospitals
and incubators
running
on the fuel they took

Israel tells us
we are blind
or delusional

indeed
the madness they would project
on us
is theirs
and
the ghosts of Gaza’s children
crowd the minds
of IDF soldiers
who cannot sleep at night

to cloud the spirit of international law
Israel uses and abuses
technicalities and blood red tape
Israel creates false alibis
and
playing Ted Bundy with his cast
tries to appear the victim
of its own imaginary genocide
and
not content with
playing the damsel in distress
Israel criminalizes a people
who dares
oppose its own destruction –
a resistance recognized by the world

and turning to the court
Israel insists
only chosen countries and their elites
are worthy
of protection
against genocide

how dare
the downtrodden
complain of genocide,
Israel whines

in nearby Dresden,
during world war two,
the desperate nazis were finished off
by the allies’ bombs –
is Israel’s memory so short ?

will history have to be repeated
by the Global South and
the axis of the voiceless
led
by South Africa
to protect Gaza
and the Gazas to be ?

will we see International Brigades
against the redoubled violence
of cornered genocidal murderers
grasping at
the last straws
the People broke ?

Or will the ceasefire
we are all asking for
finally prevail ?

A HANDFUL OF GAZA

it’s been
one hundred days
of hell
fire
and mass death
both quick and
excuciatingly slow
by rubble-choke

one hundred days
of children killed
or if they are lucky to survive
they do not know where to go
to escape
the end of childhood

one hundred days
of the streets of the world
saying No

it’s been
one hundred thousand Palestinians killed
which means
in the Israeli arithemetic of extermination
one thousand human animals a day

is that enough
for the King in his counting house
counting all the blood money
of seized ancestral land ?

is that enough
for his consort in the White House
eating the bread and honey
of arms’ sales ?

when i pass
please throw a handful of Gaza
on my grave

NO SAFETY HERE

we had been told
we were now in the blessed times
of Never Again
and
Happily Ever After

we had been led to believe
the beast
was now securely contained
by paper walls
glued with the red tape
of charters and conventions
based on
the toothless sanctity
of international law

we wishfully thought
that the wars we had fought
for justice
would lead to
perennial victories

we went to sleep
on the naive laurels
of poisonous anesthesia
and deceitful lullabies

who were we,
the downtrodden,
to claim otherwise –
the well-paid spinners lied

but now
in our lifetime
Nevermore
is happening again,
under our very eyes
disproving all the fables we were fed,
pulling the grounded rug of certainty
from under our feet
letting us know that
if nowhere is safe in Gaza
nowhere is safe on the globe
and
our home bittersweet homes
the ones still standing
could be the next
to go

LETTER TO MY ANGER

for Thích Nhất Hạnh on the second anniversary of his transition.
for my anger because anger is part of mourning and we are in mourning.

i love you
my anger
i love you
in all seasons

i love you in the Summer
when you fuel
the fire of dusty marches
when we shout out
for Freedom
on the scorching rooftops

i love you in the Winter
when in spite of the ice
and the wind
the furnaces they burn us in
still burn

i love you my anger
as my own child
and would take you in my arms
and soothe you
and ask
what is the matter
and you would let me know
your pain

Fighting Words

Journal of the Communist Workers league

ISRAEL VERBALLY BOMBS THE HAGUE | THE LAST STRAWS THE PEOPLE BROKE | A HANDFUL OF GAZA | NO SAFETY HERE | LETTER TO MY ANGER

Poems by renowned Black leader and activist Julia Wright