Prophesy for Gaza – A Poem by John D. Willis

A PROPHECY FOR GAZA

Did you hear the news?!
The last load of rubble
stinking rotten rubble
has been loaded up and hauled off.

I saw a griffon-vulture land on the truck
as it pulled off, and began
pulling at something in the rubble,
but I could not see.

G-d how glad I am all that is gone
Sometimes the stench made me gag,
the smell was like a dead dog by the road,
only a thousand of them.

No more of that! Tomorrow
earth-movers rake down the beautiful earth,
soon come flowers and shrubs and trees,
then fancy buildings high and clean!

Concrete trucks are coming I hear,
to pour footers and foundations,
and edging and paving for the road
to the boutiques and the beach.

In no time at all, the past
will be forgotten, an Eden will spring up,
a land of promise with promise
of living-space for us and our children.

G-d, why did all this
have to take so long?
It should have been done
a long time ago.

לזיין את העולם, I say!
Who cares what they think?
They will quit whining soon enough,
when they are renting our new beach,
resting from a Holy Land tour.

29 December 2023
John D. Willis