Poem: Let's Suppose

Image: ICN/JS

Let's suppose

that the woman in the blue headscarf and dress,

helped by her spouse, walks the dusty road -

no donkey - rooms, inns and stables a mess

Of rubble - to the hospital ruins - no crib and no bed -

where, unto her, a son is born.

Let's suppose

that shepherds watch their fields and olive groves

bulldozed, and quake at the bright sky flashes that break homes.

They cannot pass through the high wall

where the wise wait, not under a star but a drone's gaze,

to be allowed to enter

bearing gifts of food, medicine, shelter

and water.

Let's suppose

the newborn lives, even though each day

is a Day of Innocents - all children to the slaughter -

and although flights into Egypt for refugees there are none,

the family escapes the land where a child without sin

will never cast a first stone

because bullets hit first.

Let's suppose

the child grows and dares to speak of justice, peace,

to love others as ourselves

and thousands listen, millions.

Let's suppose

that in two thousand years little changes:

Occupation is occupation,

whether it's the counting of heads and crucifixion

or checkpoints, prisons and annihilation.

Let's suppose,

In our thousands, in our millions

We see the story of the past

In the ghosts of the present

And we listen and act

So that peace is a fact

Not a suppose.

Julie Lamin. Christmas 2023.