by Julia Kantic
 |
| Hunger Strike by Glen Le Lievre |
Annihilation?
The sum’s not difficult to do.
How many hostages
Does it take to make a genocide?
How many hospitals,
houses, hearths?
Don’t tell me about
the algebra of killing
as though it were a zero sum game.
A life is not a life
as settlers solve problems
along with soldiers
and no one asks to see
their working out—
or are shown figures by gaslight.
And if I say this?
I am villainous, nefarious, wicked,
—monstrous—for calling out
—Murder —
Terrorist is a term that has changed
to mean babies,
and their mothers,
and their sisters,
and their brothers, and their fathers, and their doctors, and their nurses, and their teachers, and their others, and their shop keepers, and their road sweepers, and their anyone with a determination to exist
—Alive in Gaza —
or thinks this slaughter wrong.
Julia Kantic is a writer and editor who reads, writes and delights in words and the spaces in between. Follow her wayward ways https://linktr.ee/peculiarjulia
