Refugees

Yuval Gilad

A small hand
struggled in the sea
but no hand
reached for 
A small body
infected with
Being foreign
because Europe
has always been
A beautiful devil
damned morality
in a suit
sitting at
a coffee shop
at the lakeside

*

Even if we hide
in the cave of Lot’s wife
and will not look back
to cities of swords
where we bombed
thousands of children,
Even if death
is war’s nature
there will be no miracle
that will erase our deeds,
because we chose
A wild revenge
like Joshua bin Nun.

*

The Dead Sea is disappearing
like humanity
in the south
at sunrise
blindness
screams obedience
to the Prophet 
and then
the birds of light
of the chosen people
taking revenge 

Yuval Gilad is an Israeli poet, born in 1971. Published five chapbooks in Hebrew, and several English translations in magazines.