WEEP, LIKE A PALESTINIAN

child of an anti-war activist in Palestine

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Weep like a Palestinian, 

as the bombs rain down

and the structure crumbles.

Weep like the small child 

sitting beside his wounded mother,

his two years having been spent in terror,

knowing no safe place,

all life in peril.

Weep for the displaced and the hated

who, when they find a homeland,

hate and displace their neighbors, in turn.

Weep because Otherness is all that is seen,

and not our shared humanity,

our shared longing for peace,
for life.

Weep, for the turning of the centuries, 

hate upon hate,war upon war,

as humans, unawakened, 

come from fear and hate and power,

and never seem to find another way

to live on this land together.

Weep, because this earth was given to us

as a gift, to live on in harmony,

nature and every living creature,

and look what humanity has wrought:

a fallen, clamoring, toxic, warring  Eden.

Weep for the angels that fall 

from the sky in planes,

in a world where geniuses 

discovered how to fly,

then other minds 

devised their deadly rockets.

Weep for the beauty of this world,

for hearts yearning for peace

in the midst of war,

and for the proven folly

of ever thinking

anything but further hatred 

can ever be won

with bombs. 

Weep because,

wherever God lives,

He must be weeping too,

at the slaughtering of his children

of every color, race and faith.