Gaza

Sudeep Sen [www.sudeepsen.net] is widely recognised as a major new generation voice in world literature and 'one of the finest younger English-language poets in the international literary scene' (BBC Radio). His poems, translated into twenty-five languages, have featured in major international anthologies.

Soaked in blood, children,
   their heads blown out
even before they are formed.

Gauze, gauze, more gauze —
   interminable lengths
not long enough to soak

all the blood in Gaza.
   A river of blood flowing,
flooding the desert sands

with incarnadine hate.
   An endless lava stream,
a wellspring red river

on an otherwise
   parched-orphaned land,
bombed every five minutes

to strip Gaza of whatever
   is left of the Gaza strip.
With sullied hands

of innocent children,
  we strip ourselves
of all dignity and grace.

Look at the bodies
   of the little ones killed —
their scarred faces smile,

their vacant eyes stare
    with no malice
at the futility of all

the blood that is spilt.
   And even as we refuse
to learn from the wasted

deaths of these children,
   their parents, country,
world — weep blood. Stop

the blood-bath — heed, heal.