Poetry - Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine / Israel

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Steal Not

Steal not Al-Quds
(Jerusalem to you)
For though you make a claim
It isn’t true
Take back, instead,
the land from where our parents came:
Lvov and Babi Yar
(to say the name).

And Poland, give back Plonsk
And Stanislaw, our home;
Romania, let me in
I have some fields to plant
outside of Czernowitz.

And still,
In Bukovina,
close to Suczawa,
there stands a water-driven mill:
This grist is real,
its flour mine,
but not another house
must fall
In Palestine

RLGreen 3.25.10

If We Can

handcuffed and blindfolded
and taken to an unknown location
handcuffed and blindfolded
hooded lost and hidden
privacy of torment
wasting lovely kind
old men small girls
their brothers and their sons
tempted to a bullet
Goliath killing David
for stones thrown not at flesh
intending State and finding steel
behind which angry soldiers
take time to conquer children
breaking mother’s souls
in Bethlehem and Nablus
handcuffed and blindfolded
and taken to an unknown location
an enterprise unnamed
ferocity unbound
by decency or sloth
handcuffed and blindfolded
you are not unknown
we think of you
we see your eyes
we want you back
we love you still
we wont forget
we want to find you
and to free you
and to hold you
if we can

RLGreen 5.18.06

For Iman Al-Hams


Relatives of 13 year-old Palestinian girl Iman Al Hams, mourn over her body at the family house during her funeral in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Tuseday, Oct 5. 2004. The girl was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, according to local and army sources, when she wandered from her normal path to school. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra).

“Israeli cleared in death of Arab girl”
Fifteen bullets into the soul of Palestine
Fifteen bullets into the body of a lovely child
Walking to school
With her books in a bag
In an area declared off limits
To Palestinians.

“We were not expecting much from this court,”
says her uncle.
Fifteen bullets into the heart of decency
"As she fell to the ground,"
Says the New York Times,
"Captain R,
(name deleted by the authorities
To protect his privacy)
Approached her and fired."
Fifteen bullets into a murdered child
Fifteen bullets into the heart of peace.

RLGreen 11.16.05

When you grind the heel

(When you grind the heel
Of your supposedly Jewish State
Into soft children’s knuckles
And I know you did
And I saw you
We all did

“…break the bones
of the stone throwers”
stones against guns
Rabin’s four soldiers
on a ten year old
he runs+
snapped his arm on CNN
over and over
like kindling
agony crime
Rabin you then killed
For being too kind,

sometimes
the people you grind
Abandon life
Burn themselves up
Pull a knife
In the market
You the target
you flee
cafes
busses
How could they?
How can we?

RLGreen 10.8.05

Why is the Palestinian economy in such good shape?

Why is the Palestinian economy in such good shape? Because now, right in Manger Square in Bethlehem, they have their own Wall Street!

- But it’s 28 feet high, and has barbed wire, gun towers, and It cuts the Holy City in half!

Well, they have to protect themselves from Terrorists!

- But who are the terrorists? Where do they live?

The Terrorists are Arabs, of course! They bomb the busses, they have no regard for human life as We know it!

- But don’t the Arabs live on both sides of the Wall?

Of course they do – so, you see, we are even protecting them from themselves, from their own terrorism!

- But isn’t the wall crushing their land? ruining wells? destroying crops, demolishing homes, dividing families? Canceling education, commerce, and the sun? Isn’t it just a place for soldiers to shoot a schoolgirl? stop a farmer? beat a teenager? piss on an old man? Slap his wife?

You don’t understand! They want to drive us into the sea!

-They do? I wonder why.

R.L. Green 9.13.05

Just Lemons and Limes

Auntie Salma has died
A Palestinian mother
Far from home
Not complaining

Her daughters and son crushed fresh lime and lemon leaves
From potted plants
And held them to her nose at the last
An aroma of home
Not war
Not seperation
Just Lemons and limes

Her last meal was foule
Picked fresh in her son’s garden
In Vermont
Not in Aboud
Not in al-Ouds
Not exile
Just lemons and limes
Just freedom

R.L. Green 7.27.05

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