Children
swimming in crashing, loamy waves
blowing out birthday candles
riding Ferris wheels
They are not your own
Children
smiling at reporter’s cameras
trudging through “safe” corridors, southerly
without anesthesia for leg amputation
They are not your tribe’s
Children
trapped under bombed-out building rubble
forcibly moved from hospitals
alone, entire family taken by missile
They are not of your ilk
Children
Without food
Without hospital
Without water
They are not pale
Children
Without incubator
Without parents
With nothing in the world but more of your bombs
Are they not human?
II.
This is not a war
It’s a massacre of the innocent [1]
1. As of December 15, 2023, over 10,000 children have been slain or lost under rubble in the Gaza genocide out of about 18,000 Gazans killed (mostly civilian); 35 children have been killed in Israel.