THE ZONE OF NO METAPHOR

by Adrienne Pilon

In Gaza, Israeli attacks have killed two Palestinians and injured several others. On Saturday, Dr. Jamal Abu Aboun (pictured above), head of the anesthesia department at Al-Yafa Medical Hospital in central Gaza, was killed in an Israeli drone strike that injured three other civilians, including a 2-year-old girl. Since last October’s U.S.-brokered so-called ceasefire, Israeli attacks have killed at least 922 Palestinians. —Democracy Now, June 1, 2026

Even metaphor is a casualty of war.

     —Mohammed el-Kurd

Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal

I keep trying to write a poem

about the sea, or olive trees,

or bombs, but I do not have metaphors

for genocide, obliteration, extermination.

Nor a poetic way to counter the euphemisms 

of protection, or self-defense.

Where apartheid becomes separation

and stolen is called contested.

 

If you want imagery, I will write that

this ground was already dark with blood        

this land was already split by wire and broken by wall  

these people already torn apart by muscle and gun   

long before the fires of October.

 

But these are not metaphors. 

Say ceasefire while bombs drop

and there is no longer meaning between us. 

I cannot locate a metaphor for starvation,

no similes for rubble or rape. 

This is not complicated.

 

If the trees are all uprooted, 

none can eat the fruit.

If the wells are all destroyed,

none can drink the water.

If some people are driven into the sea,

all will drown.

 

These are not 

I am not writing

I refuse to speak

 

in metaphors.

Adrienne Pilon is a teacher, poet, and essayist. Recent and forthcoming works appear in Dark Matter: Women Witnessing; Tendon Magazine; Susurrus and elsewhere.

DISPATCH FROM GAZA AFTER THE CEASE-FIRE CEASED (MAY 2025)

by Carolyn Martin

For your information: 
in Gaza we don't eat vegetables, fruits, 
meat, eggs, fish, milk, cheese. 
And the list goes on.
 
Most people don't have work, flour, sugar, 
ghee, oil, thyme, gas, electricity. 
And the list goes on.

Extermination is a man's plan, but God,

the best Disposer of affairs, is sufficient 
for us to go on.


Author’s note: This poem is based on a message I received from Yasser Abu Rida in Gaza. 

Yasser with his children Youssef, Maria, and Mohammad.

Carolyn Martin is a recovering work addict who’s adopted the Spanish proverb, “It is beautiful to do nothing and rest afterwards” as her daily mantra. She is blissfully retired—and resting–– in Clackamas, Oregon. Her poems have appeared in more than 200 publications throughout North America., Europe, and Australia.

I CANNOT SAVE

by Howard Winn

“January 2015- BC’s War on Wolves continues: As you read this, wolves in British Columbia, Canada are being shot at by hunters in helicopters. This is an ill-conceived plan to save endangered caribou in B.C.. The wolves are not responsible for the dwindling caribou numbers; habitat loss and human encroachment are. But wolves are taking the blame and paying the price. B.C. Wolves Need Your Help: Consider donating to our Indiegogo Campaign. Sign the Save B.C. Wolves petition.” --PACIFICWILD.org

I cannot save
them all
the wolves and walruses
the manatee and elephants
the white rhino and
the mountain gorilla
not to mention the cod
and the tarpon
of course we have
already lost the
passenger pigeon
so nothing to do there
but perhaps we
can save the redwoods
although they are
unlikely to personally care
as with the need to save
the Colorado River
and the Amazon rain
forest which is being
clear cut for agriculture
so we have to save
the indigenous people
who live in the woods
and the song birds that
are the tiny relics
of the extinct dinosaurs
so much to save and
I cannot finish the list
if only I were a heartless
sociopath without empathy
or a care in the universe
beyond my selfish self
like the Ayn Rand disciples
one could be oblivious
and blissful in the face
of obvious total extermination
as the earth we know
turns into Mars, Pluto, or Ceres.


Howard Winn’s poetry and fiction has appeared in a number of literary journals such as The Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Dalhousie Review, Antigonish Review, Chaffin Journal, Blueline, and Sediments Literary Arts Journal. He is a State of New York University Professor of English.