For Omar Haramy and Lareen Abu Akleh
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| Demolished, Silwan |
No scheming settler can demolish:
A father's madness, sadness in Silwan,
As his children climb with their backpacks
Through apartheid's wreckage
On their way to school.
What no army, no blasphemous drone,
No empire can erase:
A rabbi's tears, a cantor's prayer
And every advocate for the dead
Searching the rubble for mothers, for lovers,
Their vigil at today's cross which is Gaza.
What no army, no machine/grim gun,
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| Sage in the West Bank |
No genocide can kill:
How their coffee tastes on the tongue
As God's only sun rises in the hills;
How sage plucked from stems
Reminds them all of family, of grace;
How sumud is shared in a glance.
What no army, no checkpoint,
No AI program can keep from them:
Fire that flees every tomb,
Spirit that cries out, "Liberation Now!"--
And friendship which is solidarity
Which is human which is love.
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| I Witness Silwan |
Like Miriam and Moses,
Like Jesus and Francis,
Like Mohammed,
Peace be upon them, all.
I too would surrender to the power,
To the peace, to the One who is greater
Than all our fears, and even our faiths.
I too would surrender to the
Nameless whose name is Love.
Come, Holy Fire!
East Jerusalem,
10 May 2025
Dave Grishaw-Jones
