Grief Is A Road Some Navigate More Than Others

After the scorched earth war policy
comes the self congratulatory ceasefire
where nobody knows how long the arms
will remain silent, but everyone hopes
it will be long enough for the living
who investigate, to clear away the rubble
that was once housing and retrieve the dead
from where they were crushed and died instantly,
so the living can own their sense of loss with dignity.  

The Ghost Of Primo Levi Rides Again

I have tried to listen to the news,
but at present I don't know how to.
In the past I have had periods
of 'going blank', though that is
too succinct a phrase to describe
the fog of unclear thought I get stuck in.

The war that is in the news most
in my choice of media is the Hamas-Israeli
conflict, going on all across the Gaza strip.

I admit that I know little about Hamas.

If I were told 'Well ought to know about
how bad and wrong Hamas always were.'
I would not know why. I could only imagine
that that my teller wants me to be as angry
at the world, and as self righteously ignorant
of the scales of human history as he* is,
as if his message was 'Don't get numb,
be angry at the victims. They have earned it'. 

Right now all I can hear are the voices
of the population of the Gaza Strip
speaking the words of Primo Levi to me
As they quote Levi's 'If This is a Man'
their eyes ask me 'How did we deserve this?'.
All around them what were once homes
have collectively become a death camp.

*my teller is bound to be an argumentative male.