Palestinian Watchtower
Dedicated to the Memory of Edward Said
By Genevieve Cora Fraser
We, the observers
Grow numb as we watch
Flaming hatreds erupt
As cold eyes take pleasure
In the Annihilator's claim
To a victor's trophy
In settlement lands
Like sentries on horror duty
We survey the scorched earth
Homes desecrated by tank shells
Sanctuaries bulldozed and ravaged
Relics of prophets
Reviled and discarded
Left in heaps on the ground
A moat built for Nablus
Not for security but torment
A raw sewage passage
For Palestinians to wade
Slipping through filth
While IDF laugh obscenities
And shoot
Bullets fly free
In this fascist existence
Flesh is for searing
Torture and pain
Branded with shame
You've got no one to blame
But your selves
They taunt
Hallucinatory madness
This killing for gladness
Inflicting on others
As others did to you
Might's superiority is right
Is scheming and clever
Is greedy and needy
Papered over with lies
Deir Yassin's dark passage
Unbridled and savage
Presaged the entry
To Purgatory's gate
Dachau in slow motion
Is Jenin is Rafah is Gaza is
Auschwitz
A stepping stone
A training ground
To asphyxiate the living
Breathing
Palestinian brood
Check-pointed
They're shackled
Thwarted and hungry
Thirsty in the Wasteland
Israel's created for them
Palestine's pulse is taken daily
As steel and cement bastions
Barricade and harbor jackals
Hunkered down and attentive
For resistance is justification
Just waiting to act