Light Dims on Bondi Beach

 

Rifle shots darken 

day, mood, life force.

Killing Jews in Australia

doesn’t save Palestinians 

suffering in Gaza. Just as

slaughtering people in Gaza

has not stopped terrorists.

What, then? Hibernate? Enter 

the darkness? Escape 

under that blanket, despair?

Or light our candles

for all?

Written for Quadrille #238 at dVerse: 44 words including ‘hibernate’.

People have been lighting candles for those  killed in the recent Bondi Beach attack on civilians celebrating Hanukkah. Others are asking why we don't do that for the victims of the genocide in Gaza.

Ripping the Blindfold Off

 

I finally realise

(I can be very slow) –

of course they are killing the children!

It’s a genocide (we all know that) 

so of course they are ending

the next generation

before it starts. 

Before it gets a grip.

They are bombing the hospitals,

destroying maternity wards –

the new babies, the mothers 

about to give birth.

I thought they were – blindly – creating

a new generation of terrorists (war

begets war). But no,

not so blind after all. 

They are busy eradicating

the whole future 

of a whole people.

Contemplating this,

seeing more clearly

than I ever allowed myself:

I too have lost my breath.

Words have not been enough.

Decades of words, 

a century of words

failed to save the earth 

from effects of human greed.

How can I hope that words

might prevent the slaughter of children?
But words are all I have …

I contemplate changing 'they' to 'we'. Have we not been complicit?

Note:

In 1896, a seminal paper by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius first predicted that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could substantially alter the surface temperature through the greenhouse effect.