Crying Out for Judgement

After the doctors of Médecins Sans Frontières
had their bags searched by the Israeli Defence Forces
(After Mathew 25, 40)

The medics’ bags were searched
The cartons of baby milk 
Were taken from them
To be poured perhaps down a military privy 
They knew what they were doing  
They knew the mother’s breasts were dry

The people hungry having nothing that will grow
In the desecrated rubble of the land 
 The desalination destroyed 
Let them drink from the sea
Throats dry from the digging
Digging to find living and dead

You make us strangers by exile 
Homeless not taken in 
We makeshift tents for our shelter
My child has neither shirt nor shoes
And I am half naked in my shame
There is sickness and the wounds 
You have inflicted will not heal

In your bitterness do not allow
 The flesh you have broken to be cleansed
You have imprisoned us 
Gated us in at our borders
Visited us only with recrimination
And the grossness of your spitting

You destroy us as a people 
Being the least of your brethren
What then will the king say to you
When your work is accomplished 
And women weep with the menfolk
For the countless children the countless
Generations of children who suffer
Truly I tell you If you do this now
What will happen when the tree is dry?