by Jerry Mazza
(First Heard on Democracy Now)
The attack on Gaza, December 28th,
‘09, Operation Cast Lead,
pre-fabricated its excuse
to attack with soldiers, tanks and planes
for 22 unlawful days,
some 1400 Palestinians killed,
more than half civilians, 300 children,
only 13 Israelis to match
the slaughter of the innocents.
“Keep them functioning at the lowest
possible level,” Israeli officials
said to U.S. diplomats,
and Wiki leaked their awful truth,
killing the Doctor’s three daughters cold,
another leaking an eyeball as a tear…
this gynecologist who brought
Israeli children into the world,
slapping their tushies for a cry.
But only his screams of grief rang in
the cellphone to his good friend Shlomi,
Newsman for Channel Ten in Israel,
sending the scream across the country,
conversation of survival,
talking to each other, not just
killing in an exploding silence.
Yet the Doctor Shall Not Hate,
..his book reads…On a Road
to Peace and Human Dignity,
wishing to cross the checkpoints of fear
to work and home in Gaza,
the refugee Camp Jabalia,
recognition of his self and others…
those three daughters and a niece,
another daughter and his brother hurt,
by the two tank shells that severed
heads from bodies’ recognition,
recognizing death’s dominion
yielded only screams. Words were
his bullets, pointed, deadly healing,
explosive in the piercing silence.
Would he lives a thousand years
bringing new life to the old world
destroying wives and husbands, brothers,
sisters of the muted earth.
This is his deed willed to the future,
finding which lost are his, which theirs.
And nothing less will do, fair surgeon,
opening the heart to stop its blockage,
tearing down a wall of plaque
scraping it clean of human parts
produced by centuries of hate,
leaving it scrubbed as a child’s slate.
This is the alphabet of love,
of knowing, wisdom, uncut joy.
This is the beginning that once was,
from a to z, aleph to tav.
Jerry Mazza, 1/20/2011/Revised 11/20-25/2011
Labels: gaza invasion, Israel-Palestine, Izzeldin Abuelaish, Jerry Mazza, operation cast lead, Palestine
