Three hundred and thirty-five bullets shred flesh A fury, cold and sharp, born tonight Flies circle her head as her blood runs fresh The truth will be revealed by the satellite
The Breachers of worlds, the levellers of trust Their brutality will forever haunt this place This Vampire Empire grinds small lives into dust Until there’s nothing left of the past to erase
Here lies no hope amid the twisted wreckage No more final phone calls across the wires None left to wake up and deliver their message Cleansed and erased by these Satanic fires
Ma Khafiya Aatham – The tip of the iceberg. The Breachers – the Israeli 52nd Armoured Battalion. The Vampire Empire – the Israeli 401st Brigade. Satan – Israel.
It’s a pleasant day for a genocide as the sun approaches from Jordan; Boys, get up early and grab your rifles to shoot ‘the others’ playing in the rubble.
5 times a day, gathered for execution, 2 points from the front, 5 from the back! Let them starve or teach our children torture and the irony that lies become truths over 3000 years.
Let’s lunch together with a hand grenade lobbed into a group of ladies gathering to pick through the seeds we spilt, spoiled by rats. Oh, happy days – let’s eat!
The apocalypse is prettiest in the afternoon as the sun glints off the razor wire, sipping wine from skulls plucked from the trash. Let’s dance our way to the beaches!
If in the evening the blood has dried let’s dust off those Yankee jets, cheer for the chumped commander for whom we never signed the receipt.
Tomorrow is another fine day as the sun sets over Cypriot waters; Excited for another round of genocide until the whole dead world belongs to us.
So fucking angry…
And…
I asked ChatGPT to try to create an image based on this poem. Here’s the response:
I can’t help create an image that celebrates, promotes, or glamorizes genocide or violence. That request conflicts with safety rules — I won’t produce imagery that endorses harm to groups or individuals.
I neither cared for you one way or the other, your virtues and character were unknown; Ambivalently sympathetic to your suffering after all the horrible things I’d been shown;
But slowly you were revealed by yourself to be equally similar devils in disguise; Impossible to be unaware of the irony of your actions and repeated ridiculous lies;
And if you were not hated before this you are now surely bound to be; To inflict a holocaust for any reason removes all goodwill and previous sympathy;
There are those who still sit complicit in their silence, they are justifying; As if their own fingers pulled the trigger and, not so quietly, cause all those dying;
What goes around will again come around, this is the beginning of your own demise; With no moral high ground to stand upon there’ll be no one left to sympathise.
Can you name even one of the dead? Whilst dropping both bombs and bread You defend these actions instead And defiantly nodding your head
But killing kids is not self-defence Spreading peace through violence This is no place for indifference This is no time for your silence
Since when has questioning charred corpses Been more offensive than actual charred corpses?
Today I’m feeling:
Tired and dizzy, especially after exercise. I didn’t sleep well last night and woke up tired. At school now and feel a little out of it.
Amy woke up coughing and saying she is sick, so perhaps I have something coming on, too.
I felt a bit more with it by the afternoon but also with a blocked nose. I’m looking forward to getting home.
Health:
Physical: 7 Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
Amy’s idea of getting mala for dinner in an effort to blow away any potential lurgy. Not sure if it will work but it was deliciously hot and spicy anyway.
The best thing about today was:
There’s a good feeling around school as next week is a holiday. Students are happy and playful and don’t seem to mind doing some work too.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Watching George turn up an hour late to his class today. Most of his students had already disappeared by then anyway.
It is annoying to watch but I’m trying to put it out of my mind.
Amy took this picture because our bovine visitor came back again today.
Good, once I got moving. Since a recent iPhone update, my alarm only seems to vibrate, no light and no volume. Usually, it’s enough to wake me but this morning Amy heard it vibrating and wearily shouted at me to get up! I guess I was tired!
As I’d been waking up before my alarm for the last week or so, my brain was probably thinking that it couldn’t be time to get up yet.
Some tough exercise this morning and in my half awake state I struggled keeping my balance at times. The positive effects from it have carried me through, though and I feel good.
Health:
Physical: 8 Mental: 8
Today I’m grateful for:
Dutchie sending me the photos that I asked him for, which he took this morning. As we were waiting for the flag ceremony, we were talking about fashion, and Achang showed up wearing a denim jacket. I told them that denim jackets are kind of a 70s/80s style for me and not really in fashion.
I asked him if I could try it on and he let me whilst Dutchie took some pictures. I said that it’s a little too big for Achang and he told me that it actually belongs to his sister.
I thought I looked quite good in it.
The best thing about today was:
Soldiering through a slow workday, where only having to work three hours feels quite tiring, as there is too much downtime. I managed to stick it out until clock-out time by sitting in the cafe. I saw lots of my students walk by outside and Noah was excited to tell me that she and Lin have been chosen to help with the visiting overseas students next month.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Recently, I have been less interested in reading poetry. I think I have been overwhelmed with so much to read on prompt blogs and it’s burned me out. It always feels like a chore to analyse someone else’s work in the hope that they return the favour. It’s the ‘like-for-like’ mentality of social media.
Of course, I want my work to be noticed. I think some of it is good and worthy. But to trawl through another 40 poems about the seasons or the moon is a burden I’m getting tired of.
I need to refine my search a bit and perhaps find new places to submit my work where it might get some more exposure. Looking around, though, there are a million poets of all shapes and flavours, all looking for the same thing. I’ll just keep on writing anyway and do appreciate the people who do take the time and interest to read and respond.
Something I learned today?
In an odd coincidence, whilst I was talking with my grade 12s today, Alyn hung up a phone call from a name I recognised as a Facebook friend of mine but I had recently been wondering who it was, as they were using a different name.
She told me that it was her brother and that made me even more curious. It turns out that her brother is my old grade 9 student Achang!
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I received a message back from Anchan this morning, just stating that she is unhappy and I wasn’t really able to offer her any consolation. I reminded her that she told me that her aunt was coming in the next couple of days and that she was hoping for things to get better. I haven’t heard back again, though.
Noey sent me this picture from Utopia this morning because she will fly back to Bangkok, having finished her university life. I had been there earlier and hoped to bump into her before she left, but it wasn’t to be. I told her that I thought that she would be back someday anyway.
1994ever 