Ark
Peter Howitt
2 min read·
“I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” (Genesis 6:13)
Find something you love:
A girl or a boy,
A wife or grandma,
Your favourite doll.
Something beautiful, useful,
Venerable, vulnerable:
That can burst
Into flames
In a heartbeat
In the raining fire
Take them to the boat
Bring everything
You can fit
Into your little bag
Be ready to sail
At the drop of a hat
In a New York minute
Escape that scorched earth
Still ringing with
The tumult of killing
And stench of race-hate
A never ending
Un-winnable war
Where victor and vanquished
Are equally shamed
In their various ways
(Though the death-toll
Tells a different score)
And start again,
In God's grace.
All God wants
Is for you
To start again,
To be cleansed.
Go somewhere safe
(Hopefully warm,
A gentle reminder of home)
Far from the
Maddening bombs
Remember
Your loved ones
What you have lost
Though you may mend
The scars will remain
Listen, can you hear
The god of all things
Sing:
Flee the fiery flood,
Begin again, again, again.
Read Part VI of Sefirah – Canto for David:
Twenty to One
"The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."(Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, circa 431 B.C.E)...
Read Part IV of Sefirah – Canto for David:
The Witching Hour
Who will watch the Unwatched
Comment: With great regret, the only future I can see for ordinary Palestinians seems to be a coordinated humanitarian mass migration – as was the case for Jews (and others) in Nazi Germany. The accumulated attitude of dehumanisation has reached a point of no return there.
Anyone who cares for the civilians should be trying to get them out of Gaza (and soon the West Bank). The civilians are trapped by and between liberal wishful thinking (referencing toothless international laws which make what is happening a ghastly collection of crimes against humanity) and the long standing occupation, apartheid and now this Genocide, that will only continue whilst the Western powers support it.
The fact that many extremist Israelis and Americans would like to see such a migration, rather than cease their policy of apartheid and ethnic cleansing, is not the point when thinking of this from the perspective of civilians.
Obviously any Palestinians that do not wish to leave their homeland should be supported by us and international law and organisations, however the prospects for all Palestinians continue to look bleak when you have two nuclear superpowers (the USA and Israel) intent on alternating between slow motion 'mowing the lawn' and quick speed Genocide of a whole people that have no powerful State actors supporting them (as has been the case for many decades).
Many of the leaders in Israel, Palestinian occupied territories and the USA are extremists that see the Palestinian's suffering as merely tools for their political ends (that is to say they are terrorists). We might not be able to stop them but we should not avoid calling them out for what the are whilst trying to save men, women and children being murdered like animals in their droves.
It is really quite simple, if you think killing over 40,000 women and children is justified then you are the terrorist.
Further reading:
The not-so-secret history of Netanyahu's support for Hamas
From sabotaging Oslo to funneling Qatari cash into Gaza, Bibi has spent his career bolstering Hamas to help perpetuate the conflict. Even after Oct. 7, argues historian Adam Raz, he's still advancing the same strategy.
Israel and the U.S. are engaging in a bogus debate over the two-state solution
The Attention the U.S. Is Paying to the Prospect of a Palestinian State Alongside Israel Is Part of a Ploy Orchestrated by Netanyahu, Who Is Back to His Old Tricks. A Two-state Solution Cannot Come Now, and the Biden Administration Knows It
On the road to annexation, Israel is intentionally causing a Palestinian economic collapse
To Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, This Campaign of Wrecking the Palestinian Economy Is a Necessary Phase in His Declared Plan of Annexation and Expulsion, but Will He Set Off a New Intifada in the West Bank?
The Trees - Poetry Archive
The trees are coming into leaf Like something almost being said; The recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again And we grow old? No, they die too,...
Trump doubles down on call for Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians from Gaza
Shortly After Speaking With Egypt's Al-Sissi, the U.S. President Said He Wants Gazans 'In an Area Where They Can Live Without Disruption. Gaza Has Been Hell for So Many Years'
