By Samina Salim
Children eating grass, innocent, hungry and lost
Mothers soaked in red, wombs tremble in terror
Searching for words I may write of the pain within
Searching for words I may speak of anger within
Words I can’t find anymore
Soft faces, hazel eyes, shiny pigtails, now wrapped in white
Stolen play, broken fairytales at the hands of a genocide
Searching for words I may use to vent at humanity in feign
Searching for words I may lament to oppose my own in vein
Words I can’t find anymore
Starving bodies, await to break bread on an empty spread
All in an empty stare say it is Ramadan, resilience is inbred
Searching for words so I may share the guilt of my abundance
Searching for words so I may reveal the truth of my negligence
Words I can’t find anymore
Bullets and bombs, rockets and shells, fire and flame, burn us all,
Scars and lesions, slash and gash, wounds and blisters, hurt us all
Searching for words so I may scream we hear you Gaza, we see you too
Searching for words so I may shriek we look for you Gaza, there for you too
Words I can’t find anymore
Civility no more, morality in a dump, humanity in a shock, what is left of us
Liberty is selective, equality a choice, freedom for few, what’s left to discuss
Searching for words so I may say justice, freedom and liberty for all or none
Searching for words so I may yell not fair today nor tomorrow, and forever
Words I can’t find anymore
Even if I find the words, how do I speak the unspeakable
Even if I find the words, how do I defend the undefendable
Samina Salim is Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Houston
1 April 2024
Source: countercurrents.org