Bruce Black

This plague of blood

Who are the ones burning 

and murdering 

Palestinians in their villages, 

slaughtering 

sheep and goats, 

cutting down olive trees 

that have grown on the land 

for centuries?

 

Who are the ones spilling blood

and turning the land 

into a mortuary, 

a funeral home, 

not the homeland 

I used to dream of, 

not the Jewish state 

I once looked on 

with pride.

 

Do you not remember 

how God wept 

when the Egyptians were drowning 

in the sea and we, His people, 

cheered? 

 

Where is our compassion? 

What happened to kindness? 

When did we become like our enemies 

slaughtering the innocent, 

trampling peace, 

drowning calls for talks, 

torching homes instead of 

helping neighbors?

 

How did we become perpetrators

not victors, persecutors not victims,

all for the sake of a land

that we claim as our own 

and that they claim as their own, 

while each side shouts curses 

and refuses to listen?

 

Does no one see how our blood 

mingles in the earth with their blood, 

and how the land has become 

blood-soaked? How can there be 

so much blood?

 

Does no one see 

the blood is so great, 

so deep, 

like the sea, 

and we are drowning in it?

 

Does no one see 

how our hopes, our dreams, 

our love of peace, 

our visions of a future, 

how all are stolen from us

by this plague of blood?

About the Author
Bruce Black is editorial director of The Jewish Writing Project. His poetry and personal essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Write-Haus, Soul-Lit, The BeZine, Bearings, Super Poetry Highway, Poetica, Lehrhaus, Atherton Review, Elephant Journal, Tiferet, Hevria, Jewthink, The Jewish Literary Journal, The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Mindbodygreen, and Chicken Soup for the Soul.
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