Friday, May 10, 2024

LEAFLET

by William Aarnes




Imagine yourself old enough

to have survived Operations

Cast Lead and Protective Edge.

 

Imagine a fellow refugee

            videoing flyers drifting

down from a blue sky,

 

then focusing on you

            as you pick up a leaflet

                        at once a plea for news

 

about pictured hostages

            and an implicit warning

                        that soon your current shelter

 

will be demolished by bombs.

Imagine knowing the world

can see what’s happening.

 

Imagine knowing the world

keeps failing to react.

Imagine your dulled terror,  

 

your bewildered loyalty,

your desperate rage.

Imagine your aimless trek.

 

Imagine your imagining

there’s somewhere to go

where the flyers

 

won’t drift down again

to tell you to keep moving.

Imagine the leaflet

 

as one of the keepsakes

            that will give purpose

to your children’s lives.   



William Aarnes lives in Manhattan.  For perspective he recommends Norman C. Finkelstein's Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom.