by Donna Katzin
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Part of the humanitarian zone, around Al-Aqsa University, west of Khan Yunis. February 2024, compared to December 2024. Credit: Planet Labs PBC via Haaretz, December 31, 2024 |
There is no shelter to keep out the cold
in Deir al-Balah—no water
safe to drink or mouthfuls of food…
famine claims the children one by one,
even infants who, though barely named,
are loved.
Winter winds do not appear to notice,
rip through shreds of plastic
pretending to be tents,
that can no longer hold together
as unspoken words and stifled prayers
stab at throats too dry to utter them.
Without knocking, rain pours through the openings,
soaks clothes and bedding to the skin
for days and nights that never close their eyes,
like a lethal benediction
claiming tiny souls of unblessed babies
freezing in their mothers’ arms.
A world away, one million revel in Times Square
awash in bright lights and bubbly
on the eve of the New Year.
Donna Katzin is founding and former Executive Director of Shared Interest, investing in South Africa's democratic development, and co-coordinator of Tipitapa Partners, working with Nicaraguan mothers to feed their children. She is also a member of the Reconstructionist Movement's Tikkun Olam (Repair the World) Commission, and a published poet honored to have been included in The New Verse News.
