(For Hassan Safadi and the others)

By Francis Oeser

The cell is dark.

Bearer than deserts.

Stifling as loveless threats.
 
***

But, beware: the silence in my cell

is the mindless noise outside

where hate and infidelity overwhelm

the ordinary (sacred) life.

***
 
For, hangmen will be hanged,

the torturers tortured

and new celebrations of

The Family of Mankind

will sing in the hearts of

thinkers and labourers,

servants and masters.

****

Two by two

we will re-find Eden,

protected by angels,

fecund with love,

joyous as childhood

as we embrace

our true future.

(This is a response to Richard Falk’s plea about the Palestinian hunger-strikers  – 19.08.12)

– Francis Oeser is a novelist and a poet. He contributed this poem to PalestineChronicle.com.