I
So many words.
Over the last year there has been
a veritable tsunami of words,
tumbling in a passion of protest;
a worldwide wave of revulsion
at the atrocities being inflicted on Gaza.
Yet what have they achieved?
Now I am struck, not by the power of words,
but by how paltry, how puny, they seem.
It is not the fault of words, entirely.
For they cannot describe the indescribable.
Yet, one year on, after all the words, what has changed?
Nothing has changed.
It is still the same.
No, not the same.
A thousand times worse.
It is a grim, grisly vision
of Groundhog Day.
Gaze on Gaza. Ground Zero.
II
As for words; what words do we employ now?
We’ve used up anger, outrage, horror, disgust;
and all their many derivatives.
Perhaps only one word still remanins.
Disbelief.
Disbelief that, one year on, it still continues;
that it is still allowed to continue.
Events, initially so shocking,
an affront to the very notion of civilization,
have, gradually, ceased to appall us.
The raw repitition of daily horror has, somehow, diminished it.
Remarkably, we have learned to live with it.
In Gaza people continue to endure;
for what else can they do?
And, over time, they, too, have learned;
only, surely, theirs has been a ruder, more basic education.
They have learned that, as long as
they can continue to endure,
the world can continue to live with it.
III
So there, I’ve put in my pennyworth;
my conscience is salved.
I can be satisfied I’ve done my bit.
At least I feel a little better now.
Meanwhile, we are one year on;
and what is different now?
More dust. More destruction.
More despair. More death.
And more words.
Always more words