Laid Bare XV
The fifteenth poem in the Skendong Laid Bare series is a spoken-word style reflection on war, media attention, displacement, and the search for justice. Through anger, grief, and spiritual questioning, it confronts the suffering of civilians caught in conflict.
I try to block out news about Palestine,
Because watching Al Jazeera makes me lose my mind.
The cease-fire broke and the slaughter got worse,
While the world’s distracted by Trump’s tariff wars.
I see kings portion out the land by lots,
A proposed Riviera built on dead children’s bones.
Nowhere to run under the moon or sun,
No shelter from the sky and the falling bombs.
Death comes in weapons shipped from overseas,
To implement their genocidal ethnic cleansing.
Curious minds cannot enter Gaza to witness
This horrible blockade by land and sea.
They attack tent camps in safe zones again,
Bullets scatter all the refugees’ dreams.
You kill with your advanced machines of war,
But this doesn’t mean you have conquered them.
Your decency died to annihilate what they have.
Mosques, churches, and ancient sites destroyed.
Gatherings become funerals, funerals become gatherings,
And there’s a news blackout of the occupied West Bank.
God, how long shall Palestinians’ cries go unheard?
Or shout “Violence!” to Your silent face?
Did they come to live just to die as prey?
In Yehoshua’s name we pray: Justice, Lord.
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