Eyeless in Gaza (Revisited)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Today’s poem as written five years ago; tragically, little or nothing has changed unless for the worse.

Surely, it is high time leaders on both sides looked to their consciences instead of their politics and worked together for a peaceful solution to this sick war?

Playing the blame game will only cost more lives. 

This poem is a villanelle.  

EYELESS IN GAZA (REVISITED) 

Blind carnage in Gaza

(world calling for a ceasefire)

a crime against nature

Child calls for its mother

(dead before she can get there)

blind carnage in Gaza

Each side blaming the other

(but who pays the dogs of war?)

a crime against nature

Dispute dragging on forever

Its roots in geography and culture;

blind carnage in Gaza

Ordinary people fear

the rest of the world doesn’t care;

a crime against nature

Diplomacy holds the answer

(were politics but see its way clear);

blind carnage in Gaza,

a crime against nature

[London, January 8^th 2009]

Copyright R. N. Taber 2009

[From: On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010; rev. ed. in e-format in preparation.]