No One Cares: A Poem for Palestine

I wrote this poem almost four years ago and yet it's still painfully relevant. The genocide of Palestinians didn't begin on October 7th, 2023; it began decades before then.

No One Cares: A Poem for Palestine

Photo Courtesy of Brookings

Human lives should not be goods to be bought and sold.
They should not be pieces on your chessboard.
They should not be moved about in your game of power.
Can you not see the death toll that rises every hour?

As you sleep soundly in safety,
The innocent weep and bleed,
But you turn away completely.
Saying it doesn’t concern me.

You preach and preach about how all lives matter,
But how can that be true when the innocents are bruised and battered?
How can that be true when they fight all on their own?
As the world carries on and leaves them alone.

They should not be pieces on your chessboard.
Human lives should not be goods to be bought and sold.
They should not be moved about in your game of power.
How can you not see the death toll that rises every hour?

No one cares.
No one bothers to share.
No one speaks,
As the innocent weep and bleed.

You preach and preach about how all lives matter,
But how can that be true when the Palestinians are bruised and battered?

You claim that it is a fair fight.
But it’s more like leaving a child alone at night.
With wolves surrounding it from the left and from the right.
Devouring it piece by piece, bite by bite.

The innocents are left on their own.
Fighting, fighting, with sticks and stones.

Sticks and stones.

While the wolves have mass weapons of technology,
And the support and backing of many overseas.
It is not the fair fight that many claim it to be.

This should not be a sickening game of power.
As more lives are lost hour after hour.
Human lives should not be goods to be bought and sold.
They should not be pieces on your chessboard.

Do you not remember feeling scared for your lives,
As a mob stormed the Capitol in broad daylight?
Do you not remember the feeling of fear,
As the mob got near?

It was condemned.
Denounced.
Acknowledged as something unacceptable.
Hours and hours of news coverage it received.
But when similar things happen in Jerusalem, it's as if no one sees.

These people of Palestine share the same fear.
These innocents of Palestine shed tears.
Their mosque and their homes have been stormed in broad daylight.
But from the world’s reaction, it might as well have been happening at night.

You preach and preach about how all lives matter,
But how can that be true when the innocents are bruised and battered?
How can that be true when they fight all on their own?
As the world carries on and leaves them alone?

After the Capitol was stormed,
You ordered soldiers to come to D.C,
To guard your city,
Because you were attacked for defending democracy.

Now think about the Palestinians who have no army.
No soldiers, no weapons of war.
All they want is to peacefully worship forevermore.
All they want is to stand up for what they believe,
And guard their sacred mosque  and live peacefully.

Yet they bleed,
And scream,
Tears run down their cheeks,
As bombs go off in the streets.

You preach and preach about how all lives matter,
But how can that be true when the innocents are bruised and battered?

Or do you only care when the innocents are some of your own?

Are other innocent lives expendable?
Mere pieces that you play with, in a game of war,
To be cast aside and ignored,
Perpetuating this horror forevermore?

This is not a fair fight.
It’s more like leaving a child alone at night.
With wolves surrounding it from the left and from the right.
Devouring it piece by piece, bite by bite.

Can you not see your hypocrisy?
Oh, the nation that was founded on the ideals of life and liberty?
What about the lives of those Palestinian innocents?
What about their liberty?
Or is freedom only for those who give you money?

How many more must die for your greed?
Are you deaf to the tears?
Are you blind to the grief?
Do you not feel the least bit of sympathy?
For those who are losing their lives as we speak?

How many more must die for your greed?
Are you deaf to the tears?
Are you blind to the grief?
Do you not feel the least bit of sympathy?
For those who are losing their lives as we speak?

Why do you not condemn the oppressors?
And help the oppressed?
Why do you not see that these are human lives and not pieces in a game of chess?

Why do you turn away and ignore the grief,
Letting a terrible history repeat?

Never again, you said so many times before.
But over and over and over again you ignored,
Human lives should not be goods to be bought and sold.
Is money truly more valuable than human lives?
Than human souls?