i walk with you

on sea-bound land

and kiss the earth with naked feet

i listen for any shifts in the sand

for history’s unwritten seed

and i forget my sadness

as i watch the wind and sand at play

making tiny avalanches

rolling the beach back out to the sea

puff after puff, grain by grain

and when i turn my gaze to the sky

so blue today, so deep

so unfathomably vast

a few seconds dwelling in that space

is enough to lose and find

myself attesting that i too

am water, wind, the sand, the sky

just spaciousness, that light, that blue

which tumbles, falls, defies and flows, keeps moving

day into night, night into day

then thoughts return, dark shadows

and with them come images of you

condemned, dear friend, by manmade madness

to an abyss where fear and hate rain

bomb after bomb, rage after rage

the soul of your world dismembered

crushed into rubble, waste, ashes

how can one watch that kind of dust

float slowly down the drain

unseen, unheard and unremembered

not in my name, i shout and pray

never again was meant to be

never again for anyone, dismantle

this false dream machine, this factory

churning out nightmares, cruelty

shut it down, no more erasure, i say

and testify that we are one

through sand and light and water

one wind of change from shore to shore

singing our songs of freedom

this earth, these waters, open skies

are peace and pain, are truth personified

are breath, are blood, are histories

your olive groves will live again

for truth can never lie, for truth can never die

i walk with you, uphold your hurt, your heart

your suffering far beyond sadness

to stem your pain across the world

this song i send, this wind, my heart

beat by beat, breeze by breeze, to you, to you

dear Gaza