Glancing at Gaza

It’s a dust-choked sky

A silence sharp like a knife

Where broken stones litter

And the innocent children

Play on the bloodstained streets

Oblivious of the suffocating air.

My heart goes out

To Gaza's streets

Where tears flow freely

I hear the echo

Of blasting mortar shells

And a distant sobbing cry.

I see a dream dissolved

In the troubled water

And the shadow

Of a life in darkness

A future doomed

Forever

A story growing old

Day by day.

For every mother

Holding her tears

For every father

Battling through the pains

For the young eyes

Those seen too much so early

My heart aches

For a healing moon.

No borders mark the place

In the globe

Just human sorrows

Etched upon each face.

The gentle olive tree

A witness stands motionless

Bears silent testament

To love's enduring will.

May peace prevail

Where dreams turn to ashes

May divine grace

Embrace the cursed land.

Pradeep Biswal is a bilingual poet, translator and editor based in Bhubaneswar. He has ten poetry collections in Odia and three in English to his credit during the last four decades. His poems have been translated into Punjabi, Telugu, Assamese, Hindi and Malay and have been published in separate volumes.