From Here to Gaza

by Genny Lim

Death never saw itself coming
Only the eerie silence just before
Heaven blew up and the
olive trees burst into flames
At that interminable moment
All the exits from Gaza were sealed
And the key to your home became a
souvenir in the mausoleum of your dreams
When the roof of darkness caved in
The Sea of Galilee turned red and
there was nowhere to go
Time was a thief your memory froze
Little did you know the terror in your heart
had been there all along from birth
like a little mouse trapped in a cage
Little did we Americans know that
the distance from here to Gaza
was an illusion and that the border
between Palestine and Israel did not
truly exist, ever, except in fiction
History is occupied territory and
whoever lives to tell it is the victor
There are no more lions, only hunters
with power over life and death
What’s left?
Only stories of the Flower of Jericho?
Only the place where Jesus fasted
for forty days and forty nights?
You’ve nothing but stories to
fill the empty Temple Mount
Your hunger echoes in the
desecrated ground and through
the tunnels of insurgent prayers
Never to be satisfied until the river returns
to the sea and the Right of Return is reality
You will know that moment when life returns
with the infallibility of spring
because your spirit will soar
on the chords of the wind and
Life will know itself becoming!