Poem: Israel Kills Innocents in House of Peace

Israel Kills Innocents in House of Peace[*]

In the House of Death
Facing the North Mountain
Where Moses spoke
To God so long ago
Still inhabited
By the Good Samaritans
Ancient Jews
And the good people
Of Nablus, Palestine
In the House of Death
Blood soaks the rolled
Carpets the kitchen
Bedrooms, bathroom
Living room are bulleted
And scarred pots
And pans are sieved
With holes delivered
By Israeli snipers rampaging
Clothes shredded
By machine gun spray
The front door once
Welded shut by missiles
Fired from tanks
And helicopter gunships
Has been replaced
The windows
Shattered in shards
Now discarded
Still cuts the heart
Of the widowed
Mother Salam
Means peace
Now lost in pain's
Darkness grieving
Her martyred husband
Khaled and son
Mohammed Salah
Innocents slaughtered
Willfully
Vengefully
After killing
Known militants
Setting gun sights
On a House of Peace
Israeli spies
Had identified
The week before
In the House of Death
Grieving children
Suffered but survived
The night of horror
Recuperate slowly
Lives as shattered
As the mirror
In their parents'
Bedroom
Where the father
Died pleading
To the Israelis
To spare the life
Of his family
In the house
Where death
Embraced
The peaceful
Shame is the legacy
Of an Israel
Swelled with pride
In possession
Still worshipping
The Golden Calf
Forgetting
The tablets
Brought down

From the mountain
By Moses
In Communion
With the God
Of All Who
Commanded
Thou Shall
Not Kill
Laughing
Mocking
The Israeli
Troops
March on
And on
In a parade of Death
Toward their self-defeating Destiny
God's Commandments
Shattered and ground
Into dust beneath
Their polished
Combat boots
Echoes of Auschwitz
Reverberate
Between Nablus'
Twin Mountains
Resound

From Palestinian peaks
And valleys
To Jerusalem
And Gaza's
Mediterranean shore