An elegy for Gaza…an elegy for everyone
As the old year died, my friend sent me an elegy for Gaza. Except that it wasn’t just for Gaza, it was for us all.
Indran Amirthanayagam’s poem is for everyone, for we lose a little of ourselves every time someone in Gaza perishes in Israel’s military offensive, or is maimed, displaced, bereaved, starved or dehydrated. As of January 2, at least 21,978 people have been killed and 57,697 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.
Indran’s poem is titled Elegy for the Extended Family. To me the part that speaks most is when he claims a kinship of grief with Mosab, who has posted on social media about an airstrike in Khan Younis that killed six members of his family.
“…we too have lost six members of our family,” writes Indran, “and we will mourn for forty days,/ mark every anniversary, lay flowers at our altars/ where we live on the planet, which grieves as well…”
Here is the poem in full:
Mosab, reading your post today of the dead
from an airstrike in Khan Younis, cousins,
uncles, aunts, six members of your extended
family, six degrees that separate us, I felt
at first I did not have words to console, but
now these have come. They are not grand
or clever but spring from the heart. Today
your friends and I, readers throughout
the world, we too have lost six members of
our family, and we will mourn for forty days,
mark every anniversary, lay flowers at our altars
where we live on the planet, which grieves as well
another chemical, self-induced abomination
on the patrimony we inherited and continue to destroy.
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
