In the photo from Gaza
A small child
Is standing in a line
That may or may not
Lead to food.
The child is not wearing a shirt,
His ribs look almost as if
They are on the outside of his body
Rather than inside him.
I have been hungry.
You have been hungry.
We’ve gone home
To grab a sandwich
Or stopped for a burger
At a fast-food joint.
The look on the little boy’s face
Speaks of a hunger so enormous,
So profound and devastating,
You and I cannot fully grasp
What he is experiencing.
The little boy is probably going to die.
Something in him
Has been desperately fighting
Against his likely death,
But he is weakening.
He has had no food
For more days than he can count.
His little body is giving out,
Not surrendering,
But increasingly unable
To continue the struggle
No matter how much
He wants to live.
This beautiful little Palestinian boy,
All children of Gaza,
All Palestinians living in that nightmare
Are being systematically starved
By those who have lost the right
To call themselves human beings
As their own version
Of a “final solution”
Plays out in Gaza,
As they lay plans
To ethnically cleanse an entire populace
And turn their homeland
Into real estate
For the true believers.
The little boy is still standing in line,
Holding a cracked bowl
In both hands
Extending it to the world
And asking the world
To make this stop.