My Cousin Israel, How Do We Handle This?
by Dennis Price
My cousin was raped and murdered.
The family seeks revenge and safety.
How far do I go supporting them?
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
An eye for an eye soon leaves all blind.
A hungry, besieged stomach
Does not understand the politics of collective punishment.
But how do you shake the salt out, once it has blended
Itself with the ground pepper?
Grain by grain, or winnowing it with the wind?
Surely not by burning it all up!
Life is cruel,
Must we be crueler?
Do the numbers tattooed on our arms
Give us the right to terrorize,
To be unbuffered in our defense?
Surely there are quieter, more nuanced, long-term
Solutions that don’t require so much
Blood and pepper be ground together.
Copyright 2023 by Dennis Price
Dennis Price is a shy writer of poetry, who uses it as a journal and diary of his life. In his spare time he’s a parent of two, husband and cat father. He makes money by making sawdus
Like this:
Like Loading...
