A small child tries to fly

watch
how for a second
on Gaza beach
a small child
tries to fly
to meet
the flotilla
still unseen
in the distance

watch
how now
the children flock
undeterred
to the forbidden waters
of Gaza beach
singing to welcome
the world bearing food
on the Sumood

watch
the sea change
in the same children
who used to sit watching the waves
waiting for a rescue
that never came

BANKSY FOR GAZA

Uncle Sam and Uncle Bibi
both want
Banksy
on criminal charges
for
his mural
on the London Royal Court of Justice
depicting
a protester
holding up a bloodied sign
bludgeoned
by Lady Justice
with her gavel

when art
tells the truth
it is considered
by the warmongers
as their crime scene
warranting a plastic cover
and a screen
before deletion

yes but
the paint
is like the blood
Lady Macbeth could not clean

yes but
the erasure failed to intervene
before the mural became
as viral
as George Floyd’s agony
and
Banksy’s identity
shielded by the People
will remain
a victorious mystery

WHAT KEEPS US AFLOAT

when we were children
we would send
the liberal dream of paper boats
in many a pond
hoping they would sail
to a magic beyond

when we were children
we failed
to understand
that pretty origami
would not save
our lynched ones
or
our stolen land

the Flotilla
is not a paper folded hope –
it reverses decimation
into an act
of united mutiny

in the here and now
those who remain ashore
will offer
the security
of legions of beacons

in the here and now
we already see
the ports of the world
poised to act

in the here and now
the Global flotilla
keeps us all afloat

CROSSING APPEARANCES

is it just another
longish piece of dusty rubble
or,
as the zooming camera shows,
the rigid, petrified body
of a buried child
turned to stone?

is the deep sadness
of this mother
caused
by the metal rods
holding up her husband’s legs
or
the painful stitches
along her spine
and her amputated toes?

no,
she says,
it is the desperation
of her small son’s inability to speak –
to say “Mum”
since shrapnel
remains embedded
in his broken skull

the mother and her child companion
are alone
in a tent
once filled with loving chatter
and that is now silent
under the deafening bombs

Fighting Words

Journal of the Communist Workers league

A small child tries to fly | Banksy for Gaza | What keeps us afloat | Crossing appearances

Poems by renowned Black leader and activist Julia Wright