Where No One Counts

When will we count the dead in Gaza?
Those buried in named graves we know,
all the tens of thousands of them,
those buried in the rubble,
the disappeared
with no one left to name them,
are still unknown
uncounted.

Then the other Disappeared,
prisoners of war
if it were a war,
but with only the rights
of terrorists
who have no rights at all
in this unequal conflict
that some call ‘war’.

And how can we count the injured in Gaza
when there are no hospitals left
and its people don’t count
so no one can count those numbers.
and perhaps no one will
in a country where people don’t count.

Now the starved and starving
have joined them,
the bags of baby bones
the unaccounted numbers
of intentional famine
in Gaza where still
no one counts.

First published in New Verse News, April 17, 2024.

The Flour Massacre

The world closed its eyes the day that flour was airdropped 
Into a broken city. A child’s dusty hands reach out  
To a loaded gun. His stomach already knows the bite of hunger.  
 
When his father died, he could count  
through the shroud: 24 ribs. 118 bodies 
Spilt over flour. If he survives, he will remember the taste 
Of blood every time he breaks bread.  
 
The world turned its back the day that they rolled in on trucks 
With sacks filled with grain. This is the price of aid.