Here’s a Gaza poem from our friend Kos Kostmayer. It is sent “with love and desperate hope for better news and happier times.”
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HOW SHALL BEAUTY CLAIM A PLACE
When sorrow bears witness
To unspeakable violence
Time withers
Weather stops
Laughter too
The wind departs
The sun retreats
Wells run dry
The sky disgorges black regret
Rivers reek of blood and bile
Children vanish in the dark
Olive trees begin to die
People wading through the bloody streets
In search of missing names
Weep to no avail
They weep because they know
There is no justice in this world
If mercy has no say
If mourning has no brief
To salvage tenderness
From mindless force
Or shelter happiness
From grief so deep
It wears the human heart away
Photo: Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. CC BY-SA 3.0 license held by Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA) in contract with APAimages. The image has not been modified.