Sunday, June 22, 2008

An Unsung Palestinian Song

Cruel nights of territorial nightmares
ancestral insomnia steers my gaze around.
All of my home that remains
smoky shambles grazed by cannons,
still meadows for their Apaches and Strategic tests.
Me, a barefooted youngster, with eyes of tears that dried to blood,
orphaned, homeless, ruthlessly molested
by devilish messengers of the 'Keepers of Peace'.

Silent forbearance intensifies their fury,
to peaceful words, a deaf ear they turn.
When to protest I walk, armored tanks they deploy to bury.
A stone I hurl to Falcons that rain bombs on me,
and a "Terrorist" they label me!
An effort to plead for my fundamental rights,
a "Fundamentalist" they call me!
By their torture and injustice, a lunatic I've become,
and a "Fanatic" they call me!

O people! What of brotherhood, what of humanity!
do the echoes of my anguished cries not ring in your hearts?
do my muffled sobs not haunt your nights?
My scorched flesh, scarred by atrocities
does it not make you uneasy in your Congregational robes?
My silent, hollow eyes, no questions in you raise!!!
O! unborn living, living dead…believing unbeliever, unbelieving believer…
do you have answers for the inevitable Divine Questions?
Today, you may turn around pretentiously unaware but
on the Day when I shall point to you
and the Eternal Judge puts you and them, all in one.
That Day I shall watch and you shall call and plead…

Do you know that just since September 29, 2000:
A minimum of 1,050 Palestinian children have been killed.
A minimum of 4,862 Palestinians have been killed.
A minimum of 32,744 Palestinians have been injured.
Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutions and the Palestinians have been targeted by none.
1 Israeli is being held prisoner in Palestine while 10,756 Palestinians are held by Israel. More than 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel (which forms about 20 percent of the total population of Palestine in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Source: The Mandela Institute for Human Rights – Palestine).
Now read this post all over again.

No comments: