“We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“In those years only the dead smiled,
glad to be at rest.”
– Anna Akhmatova
“Requiem”
Now the winds blow fair
A wedding feast of blood
Cities sacked, crops despoiled
The endless drone of clever and evil men
faceless and already dead
A dawn without light
A blank sky, an indifferent sea
The cries of mothers, always and only mothers
Their cries freeze the air
Children set aflame, walking towards us
Embraces we scorn
Quiet moments we explode
Silencing the song of birds
Invocations we ignore
from the rising of the wind, the rivers, the forest
A funeral pyre in all lands
What words will answer for the children?
The one torn to pieces
The one starving
The one beneath the rubble
The one violated
Who will say no?
Who will cast the demons out?
Blood will not wash away blood
Where will the ashes fall?
What days will become night?
Cattle, children, sheep, infants
Men, donkeys, camels, women
Amalekites all
What desperate tinkering will shape the final machine?
The one to replace the forest and the sea
Blind physicians, drunken priests, and mad prophets
All conjuring augeries of stone
Their ears stuffed with wax
The world does not speak to us
Who will place one stone upon another?
And speak the name of a single child
in the city where we dropped the sun?
Who will let their words join the land
efficacious and true?
The post Threnody (for the people of Gaza) appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by John Snider.
John Snider | Radio Free (2026-01-08T05:27:17+00:00) Threnody (for the people of Gaza). Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/01/08/threnody-for-the-people-of-gaza/
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