Hadrian sits atop his wall
Tires burn across the hall
Is this border mine or yours?
Shattered homes and broken hands
All pieces of our promised land
Who picks them up in the end?
A debt of blood soaking the sand.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
This unrelenting tide of sorrow
A concrete wall to scar my wrist
as politicians sit in bliss
They cry and moan yet garner profits
Over the bodies of our prophets
Fallen lonely in the streets
As our leaders lay between the sheets
With Rome and Ashur, Yavan and Tyre
Forgetting all that we hold dear
And yet they march with conscious clear
With harried words and graceful tongues
Each breath acrid in my lungs
Burning lies and hollow truths
Belching poison to our youth
And can you hear our homeland crying?
Trees and streams and pebbles sighing?
All because we follow blindly
Shut our eyes and thank them kindly
And if it wasn’t clear before
We owe a blood-debt to the soil
For every cousin on the shore
and every child’s mortal coil
But it’s their fault, and never mine
Said the ones who claim the land
Diligently passing by
Each verse too clear to understand
There are bodies, ours and theirs
Waiting on us for an answer
But it’s as though no one cares
Though hatred spreads as grave as cancer
We cry and weep and bitch and moan
We march and scream and bang our chests
But no one dares to take the step
To lay our haunted land to rest
They axe the calf’s overworked neck
and leave the corpse at Erez Crossing
To linger there desperate and rotting
I’ve bleached this garment red and white
Opinions without sacrifice
I wrote this poem, sang a song
Posted on my Facebook wall
I’ll go to bed and sleep too tight
As fires burn to scar the night
I’ll dream of Gazans playing sweetly
My sisters’ children praying deeply
And wake to this world unchanged and broken
Behind each shadow words unspoken
Deeds undone and paltry tokens
And warlords to be promptly paid
As bullets rip past barricades
Though “justice will be found one day”
What has gone missing must be made.
“You shall not bring guilt upon the Land in which you are, for the blood will bring guilt upon the Land; the Land will not have atonement for the blood that was spilled in it, except through the blood of the one who spilled it.
You shall not desecrate the Land in which you dwell, in whose midst I rest, for I am HaShem who rests among the Children of Israel.”
(Bamidbar 35:33-4)
