JEANNA NÍ RÍORDÁIN

Parallel Universe

While strolling through social media, I was startled to find
Pictures of Israelis & Palestinians smiling & holding hands 

For a second, I was fooled & then I read the caption –
AI-produced imagery 

I refreshed the page & was newly bombarded by air strikes
& falling rockets, drone attacks & bombed-out hospitals,

News reports & flashing images, videos of screaming 
Children, 

Urgent appeals & pleas for ceasefire – war in real time 
exploding on my newsfeed.
 
Biblical-Scale Catastrophe

This winter in the Holy Land,
Not far from where Jesus was born

Children are being buried under rubble,
Rockets are falling on their heads

Infants gasp for air in hospitals,
Or starve for lack of powdered milk

Toddlers cry out for their Yummas,
Not knowing that they’re already dead

A spokesman for the UN says: If there is 
Hell on earth today, its name is Northern Gaza. 

The Children Of Gaza Speak

We don’t care about land or borders,
History Or Politics

We don’t care about revenge – we
Have no hate in our hearts

We just want to go outside & play
On the streets of Rimal

To sleep in a warm bed at night 
& not feel afraid

To go to school, to learn & grow,
To dream, to have a future

We just want to live beautiful lives
Without rockets falling on our heads.

JEANNA NÍ RÍORDÁIN is a writer from West Cork, Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in Quarryman Literary Journal, Drawn to the Light Press, Swerve, New Isles Press, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Burrow, and Otherwise Engaged Literature and Arts Journal among others.