Shadows in Palestine

They walk like shadows of whom they were,

No longer able to recognise the living from the dead;

The night is all the same here too,

Sleep a distant dream and dreams full of forgetting;

They walk like shadows of whom they were

Amidst the rubble of a former world;

Abdullah’s shop used to stand over there,

Selling bread and medicine too;

Now it looks like it will never be mended

Mainly because Abdullah lies broken in two;

I’m sorry, did I say,

They walk like shadows of whom they were.

Sameha and I would often play

But she just walks past me these days

Her absent stare screams on silently

While everyone else walks like shadows of whom they were;

Dead cattle lie strewn like mounds of earth

With tongues lulling out of their fly ridden faces;

Children scavenge where they can

While dogs sit across the land exhausted;

I’m sorry, did I mention

They walk like shadows of whom they were.

The sky looks on unfeelingly,

No wind no sound breaks the routine

Except the occasional roar of an aeroplane

But even that no longer is such a change;

I’m sorry if I laugh, it’s just that you find it

Rather strange,

Did I forget to mention

They walk like shadows of whom they were…