Cover photo

Twenty to One

Peter Howitt

Peter Howitt

"The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

(Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, circa 431 B.C.E)

…They killed twenty 

Poles

(women and children)

Piled their bodies up

Right on that very same spot 

Where we had knifed

The Nazi bastard

(turned out

he was human

after all)


It was the very next day

I guess a pithy way to say 

You are worth 

So very little 

Compared to us

Every death

Shall be repaid 

Twenty-fold

In blood

And terror


Message received

(though we kept on fighting)

A terrible lesson learned

Passed over

With the flame that

Flickered and nearly died

A ‘gift’ to those few

Survivors that made it 

Through the horror

To the homeland


The gift that keeps on giving

For new generations 

Though this time 

A different tribe 

Of God’s children 

Shall learn 

The hard ways of hate

(or indifference)

At the hands of the strong


The weak

Who now suffer 

What they must

Who must now 

Suffer us

Or die trying


Statistics on Palestinians and Israelis killed over time (since September 2000 and prior to October 07 2023 in Gaza): https://statistics.btselem.org/en/all-fatalities/by-date-of-incident?section=overall&tab=overview

Minors and children killed after January 2009 (post the the First Gaza War aka Operation Cast Lead or the Gaza Massacre) and prior to October 07 2023 (Palestinian 1076, Israeli 23):

post image

Suggested Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising#Jewish


Read Part V of Sefirah – Canto for David:

Read Part VII of Sefirah – Canto for David:


post image
AI generated image, "The weak suffer what they must"

Arweave TX

7MPJvudMhIGCBNSIegqnsFRuD6eJDG0yYHxj9buOvZg

Twenty to One