A Room of My Own: Butterfly Kite Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LVIII "Rafah's border wall"

the kids stare

beyond Rafah's border wall

the slow descent

of a butterfly kite

severed from its string

FYI: Al Jazeera, Feb. 20: Kites fill Rafah’s skies, a symbol of hope amid Israel’s war on Gaza

In Rafah’s horrifically crowded camps, children find one bright spot of play and smiles, up in the skies above.

And this symbol of hope and its significance are articulated in Refaat Alareer's farewell poem:

Watch the Scottish actor Brian Cox read Refaat Alareer's poem, “If I Must Die,” posted on December 1, 2023 on Twitter/X, a heartbreakingly prophetic farewell poem that has now been translated into more than 40 languages.

“If I Must Die” by Refaat Alareer

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze –

and bid no one farewell 

not even to his flesh

not even to himself –

sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up

above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LIX: "amputee"

written in response to The New Yorker, March 21, 2024: More than a thousand children who were injured in the war are now amputees. What do their futures hold?

clenching

the toothbrush in his teeth

a Gazan boy

squeezes the tube left-handed

before his cracked mirror

FYI: The Wall Street Journal, March 18:Gaza Amputees Fight for Survival in Hospitals Hollowed Out by War

Doctors, running low on painkillers and antibiotics, struggle to treat thousands of Palestinians who have lost limbs

And most importantly, The Amputee Crisis in Gaza BEFORE October 7th, 2023

For example, in 2019, Israeli forces open-fired on Palestinian protestors resulting in 120 amputations, 20 of which were children.

To help with the amputee crisis in Gaza, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) has created the Gaza Amputee Project to help provide surgery, treatment, and prostheses for child amputees.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LX: " Israeli flag vs keffiyeh"

still still, face to face ...

one man with an Israeli flag

and one in a keffiyeh

FYI: Haaretz, May 1: 'A Voice Louder Than Their Bombs': For Gazans, U.S. Campus Protests Are Cause for Hope

We wanted to thank them with messages written on our tents, since we cannot display them on the walls of our homes, which have collapsed over our head

Added:

my old dog moves

from one patch of sunshine

to another ...

this lonely April weekend

chills me to the bone