Twenty To One
Poem 6 of 10 in Canto for David, poems about Israel and Palestine
“The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. "
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, circa 431 B.C.E
…They killed twenty
Poles
(women and children)
Piled their bodies up
Right on that very same spot
Where we had knifed
The Nazi bastard
(turned out
he was human
after all)
It was the very next day
I guess a pithy way to say
You are worth
So very little
Compared to us
Every death
Shall be repaid
Twenty-fold
In blood
And terror
Message received
(though we kept on fighting)
A terrible lesson learned
Passed over
With the flame that
Flickered and nearly died
A ‘gift’ to those few
Survivors that made it
Through the horror
To the homeland
The gift that keeps on giving
For new generations
Though this time
A different tribe
Of God’s children
Shall learn
The hard ways of hate
(or indifference)
At the hands of the strong
The weak
Who now suffer
What they must
Who must now
Suffer us
Or die trying1
Footnotes #
- Statistics on Palestinians and Israelis killed over time (since September 2000 and prior to October 07 2023 in Gaza): https://statistics.btselem.org/en/all-fatalities/by-date-of-incident?section=overall&tab=overview
Minors and children killed after January 2009 (post the the First Gaza War aka Operation Cast Lead or the Gaza Massacre) and prior to October 07 2023 (Palestinian 1076, Israeli 23):
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From Canto for David, ten poems about Israel and Palestine. The introduction, dedications and suggested reading are on the Canto’s page.
