How Many Lives will It Take? – A Poem

Ahed Atif Baker, 10, Zakariah Ahed Baker, 10, Mohammed Ramez Baker, 11, and Ismail Mohammed Baker, 9, were murdered by Israeli forces while playing on the beach during the 2014 aggression on Gaza. (Photo: via MEMO)

By Stephen Brackens Brinkley

 

One simple soul begs to ask the question:

 

How many lives will it take,

To embolden humanity to be humane?

How many lives will it take?

 

Hearing the cries of the children,

their hopes, their dreams, their

very humanity stripped and devalued,

placed in cages.

 

How many lives will it take?

 

Courageous men and women of diverse lands venture forth,

testing the limits of inhumanity,

and are met with unbridled hostility kidnapping and violence.

 

How many lives will it take?

 

In a pen, in an open air prison,

unable to visit, unable to move,

the longsuffering pride of the lions and lionesses

are running out of oxygen, scarcely able to breathe.

 

How many lives will it take?

 

The world sees the travesty, sees the brutality,

and utters not a word, continues on as if devoid of compassion,

commenting on occasion on how desperate is the situation,

agreeing finally that something must be quickly done,

but there is no change forthcoming.

 

How many lives will it take?

 

As the banner of blue and white

displaying the sigil of Solomon,

steals, rapes, murders, pillages and destroys,

seemingly impervious to any redress,

terrorizing generation after generation of the

true daughters and sons of Abraham,

the Zionists enacting their nefarious plan

to depopulate Palestinian ranks,

while the supposed civilized nations

avert and close their eyes,

 

How many lives will it take?

 

Who will take on the mighty Israel?

Who will be the David that will take on the horrific giant?

Who will be courageous enough to stem the flow of blood

and the enslavement of humanity?

 

Still, one simple soul begs to ask the question:

 

How many lives will it take?

 

– Stephen Brackens Brinkley contributed this poem to PalestineChronicle.com. 12 August 2018

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