Killing the Dead

KILLING THE DEAD

Israel blew up a cemetery in Gaza today.

Headstones were smashed
Body parts strewn about
The dead and formerly buried
killed once more.

What may appear
to the casual observer
a somewhat ghoulish moment
amidst the ongoing carnage
is but a legitimate air strike
against a terrorist site
in the parlance
of Israeli military speak.

In Gaza
insanity has no limits
and brutality no bounds.

It is not enough to
bomb universities
destroy mosques
and obliterate homes.

It is not enough to
attack relief workers
and fire on ambulances
as they rush the maimed and
wounded to overcrowded hospitals.

It is not enough to
turn Gaza from a
walled-in prison to a
free-fire zone where
choosing safe shelter becomes
a game of Russian roulette.

It is not enough to
kill hundreds upon hundreds
of Palestinian children
and Palestinian mothers
and Palestinian fathers
without even the pretense
of remorse.

Now the dead must be punished as well.
The lessons of overwhelming and
insurmountable force
extended into the after life.

Perhaps the dead are even more dangerous
than Israel believes them to be.

When shot
they do not bleed
when cut
they don’t cry out in pain
and never do they flinch when
the latest weapon rends
flesh from bone.

The dead simply lie there.

Quiet.

Determined.

Irrefutable.

Evidence of a past beyond dispute
and the justice still found wanting.

You see it made perfect sense
to bomb the cemetery in Gaza.

It is not Palestinian terror that Israel fears.

It’s Palestinian existence.