Monday, January 6, 2025

 

Five Colors of Grief  (for Epiphany & Fleeing to Egypt)

December 31, 2023

Debbie Blane

Ukraine  Yellow & Blue, Russia tried to erase you.

Sudan  Black with a slash through it.  The word “Sudan” means BLACK.  The slash is for killing a country that had just begun to thrive.  Why?  Why?  Why?

Gaza  Red.  For the blood of the 21,000 (as of today) murdered.   11,000 children. 

 

As far as I can tell, in my opinion, all of these deadly battles for land have been instigated by men. 

 

For Ukraine,  yellow and blue are the color of their flag. 

Russia, with the demented Putin and his ego

And clouded

       Pair

       Of

       Glasses

Has decided that Ukraine is actually

              A part of Russia.

It doesn’t matter

What the people who inhabit Ukraine

                                           Believe.

For Sudan the color is black.

When I look at this land with centuries of scars

Bruised, bleeding, crying out in terror

       I see black.  Sudan of course is

                                    Something

       The color black is, to me, nothing.

Once again two little boys…

Ever heard the adage

“the difference between the men and the boys

Is the                       cost of their toys”

       ?????????????????

The two little boys got hold of toys

That are far too expensive for their

       (im)maturity level.

I can’t quite figure it

                             Out

Who do they think they are going to rule

If the people are all dead

The land is scorched

The infrastructure

Destroyed

The cities leveled

       ??????????????????????????????

Who the hell do they think they are going to rule?

 

Gaza.  Hamas should have found a better way to call

For

                                    HELP

To the world than carry out a despicable massacre

On

Israel.

They should have tried to think things out more

                                    Clearly.

I imagine that the 75 (or is it 70?  I don’t care enough about exactthingsanymore to fact check it) of occupation

Of land theft

Of red spilled over the entire land

Might have made them go crazy.

 

I cry out too for the Israeli’s that were slaughtered

And then I also think about how

              Netanyahu’s plans were supersized into

Action as soon as he saw a way to justify

Murdering the Palestinians

Leveling their cities

Scorching their land.

 

His plan includes moving the Palestinians from the

              Whole

                      Of Gaza

From north to south

And from south he says, “this is a safe place to go”

And immediately starts bombing and bulldozing the

                      Place

                      That he declared safe.

He wants them to run to Egypt.

Like the Nakba (the CATASTROPHE) of 1948 when the Palestinians were killed, threatened, chased off of their land of at least 2,000 years

To refugee camps in Jordan, in Egypt, in Lebanon.

 

This is his plan for taking over Gaza.  For bringing back

                      The settlements

And creating a “blooming” Gaza because of course

Only the Israeli’s are capable of that..

This is true.

When the Palestinians

Are kept under the yoke of Israel

With every detail of their lives painfully controlled

Even the amount of calories that are allowed to go in

              Through the controlled checkpoints.

Israel won’t do that to other Israelis.

They will allow the water to flow freely,

The checkpoints will probably be dismantled,

No more pesky Palestinians to control, to oppress

To keep the

                      Thumb on.

 

One of the things that breaks my heart most

Is that governments around the globe are not listening.

People in many countries are protesting

Streets are filled beyond capacity

Demanding an IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE

                           AND END TO THE RED BLOODSHED

Some families with up to 60 members

Have been literally

Wiped

Off

The

Face

Of

The

Planet. 

 

Because Israel has cut off water, food, electricity, internet, phones, every form of survival or communication with the outside world……the Palestinians do not know that the world

 

Is listening

                     And has heard their cries.

They do not know that we are doing the only things

That we know how to do

                      To try and save them.

Did you know that the United States has

Given a green light

To the carnage?

Ah, there is the fifth color.

Green

 

While civilians weep

                          Protest

                          Donate money

                           And Watch & Pray

The U.S.  government protects Israel’s right to self defense.

There are incredibly brave indigenous reporters

Who are getting news and videos out to the world

This is how we

                              Know

About the slaughter.

Do you know it is against International Law

To bomb hospitals, schools, churches and mosques?

 

Israel has obliterated most of these

Because the wounded and the sick

                             Have gone to where they believed

                                 That they would be safe.

It is hard to be safe in the face of an armed forces rifle,

Bombs and bulldozers. 

And so my color red is being buried in mass graves

Where no one may ever know who is buried there.

I pray that the Jesus who would be born in the rubble

If he were born today

Will ultimately triumph

And the slaughter of the innocents,

              Rachel crying out for her children

               Because they are no more

Will end.

I know for certain that the God of Abraham and Sarah,

Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel (and the other three women wno were intimately caught up to him) is with the

Palestinians in the rubble.

 

God’s color is red.

And green.  And white.

And Black.

And yellow.

 

 

 

Sunday, January 5, 2025

 https://www.facebook.com/share/1Xa2Nffj7J/

Saturday, October 26, 2024

 

The broken glass 9/29/2024 debbie blane

 

 

The broken glass

                                    Is falling

                                                                        From

                                                                                                            The

                                                                                                                              Sky

When I hold my hands out

It drops in them

And cuts

And there is blood

Bright red

And I see people

With bones

Sticking out

Someone is missing,

                                    Oh Lordie,

                                                      Is missing,

                                                                                                            Their face

 

I am seeing things that lead me to believe

I am in hell

A body

Without a head

I cannot breathe

 

My guts are throwing up

Our beloveds

                                    Are

                                                      Being

                                                                        Shredded

 

                                                                                          And broken

                                                                                                            And taken from us

Before we can say

Good-bye

I love you

Don’t leave

Don’t leave……

POEM: DO I KNOW YOU? BY DEBBIE BLANE 10/20/24

 

Do I know you?

10/20/24  Debbie Blane

 

I was thinking the other day about

My young Debbie

And more mature Debbie

Kissing in life

As passages are passed.

Children born

Grown up

Leaving home

Grandchildren born

Watching and feeling the changes in my

Body as the years pass

Knowing the grief that I feel

As Rachel weeping for her children

A Biblical reference

Relating from the Hebrew Testament

To the Gaza Strip and Lebanon

Of today.

Today as I read a post about Rachel

I decided

To

Claim

Her.

I am Rachel.

She is timeless.

Of course once she was not.

Rachel died young in childbirth

On the road to Jerusalem.

Now there are other mothers

And their babies

Dying young

In

Gaza

In

Lebanon

In

the

West

Bank.

Then I looked in the mirror

And I saw the oddest thing

It was

As though there

Was the young mother me

Looking out

At the

Older

Longer in tooth

Me.

Like we wanted to touch.

“Do I know you?”

I thought I heard her say?

There are beautiful parts of you

Tucked away in me

That you would

Recognize

In the body

That you

Might

Not

Recognize

I said to her.

So many women in Gaza

Are not getting to grow old

And have the

Day

Come

When

Their

Young

And

Old

Selves will meet in a mirror and

Blow a kiss. 

So many babies and wee

Little girls

   In Gaza

       Are not

          Even

             Getting

                To become

                    Old enough

                       To have

Babies.

Family lines

Are being

Wiped

Out.

“Do I know you?”

“You know some of me. 

I know you.

I cherish you. 

You are loved.”

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

 

The broken glass 9/29/2024 debbie blane

 

 

The broken glass

                                    Is falling

                                                                        From

                                                                                                            The

                                                                                                                              Sky

When I hold my hands out

It drops in them

And cuts

And there is blood

Bright red

And I see people

With bones

Sticking out

Someone is missing,

                                    Oh Lordie,

                                                      Is missing,

                                                                                                            Their face

 

I am seeing things that lead me to believe

I am in hell

A body

Without a head

I cannot breathe

 

My guts are throwing up

Our beloveds

                                    Are

                                                      Being

                                                                        Shredded

 

                                                                                          And broken

                                                                                                            And taken from us

Before we can say

Good-bye

I love you

Don’t leave

Don’t leave……

 

The Grands

9/29/2024  Debbie Blane

 

Watching the children starve

Watching the grandparents whither

But the grandparents are supposed to be

Teaching the grandchildren

The customs

The songs

The ways of living

That have kept the people alive for

So many centuries

As a people.

It is hard to do when the only ones

Left

Are the generations in between.

 

Someday.

Once again.

The middle will have children again

And become the grands

The children will grow up and have

Children

Who will become the grands to the grands

And life will be renewed.

 

 

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Hind Rajab 6 Years Old (In Memory Of)

 

Hind Rajab 6 years old

(In memory of)

8/19/2024

Debbie Blane

I was

An

Ordinary girl

With a wonderful

And ordinary life

Until I was left

In a car

With my dead aunt and uncle

And four cousins.

 

The Israeli defense force

Promised me safe passage

And the two

Brave ambulance drivers who were

Sent to retrieve me

To take me to my anxiously waiting mother.

 

They had been promised safe passage

2.

Until.

Until.

The snipers killed me in the backseat

Of the car

And the ambulance drivers

In the ambulance

When we were all supposed to be

 

Set free.

 

I have become a famous six year old martyr

In the world

Because my mother weeps

And I am gone

From my beloved gaza.

 

Now that you know who I am

I will tell you about the ordinary object.

It is an olive wood spoon.

I used to help my mother cook

By stirring things in a pot

With an olive wood spoon.

 

Guess where that spoon came from?

 

My family used to have olive wood groves

Our trees were old

Some of them could be

I don’t know….

Well,

Thousands of years old. 

 

Really.

 

Every year when the olives were picked

The loose olive wood was harvested

And kept to age

Then it was used to make oh so many

Beautiful

Things.

Like olive wood spoons

To stir my mother’s famous

Cooking

With.

 

Until.

Until.

Israel decided that the gaza strip

Could no longer breathe.

Trees have been

 

Destroyed

 

Pulled up by their roots

Chopped off at the bottom

Killed

Murdered

Like

Well,            like

                                            Me.

 

Have you ever held

An

Olive

Wood

Spoon?

?

?

 

They are beautiful.

Smooth.

The grain of the wood shows

And tells a story.

 

An ordinary object

That I held in my hand

That my father had carved

Just

For

Me

Out of the fallen

                                    Branch

                                                  Of

                                                          An

                                                                 Olive

                                                                               Wood

                                                                                              Tree.