When The Ravens Drop

~ for Gaza ~

“Gauze on my Hand” image by author

For Gaza

Gauze* — derived from Arabic ‘gazz’ which means raw silk. For centuries Gaza weavers have been weaving the finest gauze.

… I loved to watch the ravens come

children shrieked

when the ravens dropped

flowers closed as the ravens fell

green-eyed cats turned

sinew and stealth.

Ravens ate what children threw

and flapped away as the Bulbul sang…

Like shards of hematite

frozen ravens sit in

a muttered sleep.

cobwebbed by smoke

a full moon hangs.

Festooned with shame

and borrowed light in

a dusty penumbra

it drags itself and

cohort celestial bodies

along deep sapphirine

immensities of

unholy indifference.

How can they not

moan, these constellations,

and fall

stumble at the very least,

these stars,

guarantors of safe passages?

What a betrayal

I tell you,

what a betrayal.

On a tattered beach

carbon tears of war-torn

winds are falling

they fall

fall

fall

on roses of fresh blood

abloom in creosote and sand.

Irises and turtle doves

all but forgotten and

peace a veiled ghost

a blunderer, gropes

for a foothold

obscene in its blindness…

And the dead can’t see

where ravens tear