cw: this poem contains references to war crimes, death, and injustice
there is a hole in the sun and it is shaped like Gaza
there is a hole in the sun and it looks like the shadow of a genocide
as the sun burns
we must also burn for Gaza
for a free Palestine
for free Palestinian people
words have failed me but the sun
the sun has a hole that is shaped like Gaza
and when I saw it I knew that it might be my wild imagination
it might be that I see a pattern because I want to see it
but I think I speak true when I say that I see Gaza everywhere
Palestine, everywhere
greed and murder and the worst of the worst of what we are capable of doing to the people that we hate
there is a hole in the sun
it is not only we who see what is happening
it is not only humanity that must fight and scream and burn for the freedom of our people
there is a hole in the sun and it is shaped like Gaza
we are not the only ones who do not forget
let the sun shine its unblinking unchallenged unsafe unending light over us
let it burn us with the fire of a thousand thousand more suns
so that a shadow falling over Gaza can be a shelter, a canopy, a roof, a bomb-proof barrier
so that Gaza can be free from burning
there is a hole in the sun and it is shaped like Gaza
by Nix Kelley, December 2 2023
I have been so sick. I was up with the toddler early this morning and suddenly needed to go to the bathroom to be sick and I am not usually sick like that. I am worn out. I can still taste acid.
I do not live in Gaza, or the West Bank, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or Sudan, or Haiti, or Ukraine, or any other places I cannot bring to mind right now where genocides, slavery, and the destruction of people are happening in the name of resources and money. I live in the United States, and we are complicit. My government sends money and weapons and publicly supports architects of genocide and apartheid around the world. We are a rich country. We are paying money in order to facilitate the deaths of millions. Taxes extracted from money we scrape from jobs that don’t pay enough, turning our sacrifice into a curse.
And there is a hole in the sun that is shaped, to my eyes, like Gaza.
None of us are free until all of us are free.
Free, free Palestine.
featured image is an image of the sun on December 2 2023 by The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO); image downloaded from spaceweather.com
