A cold wind blows -
Singing a lament,
Moaning with pain.

The burden of the story it carries is weighing it down.

A cry of grief -
A pause to sob -
Another cry of gief -
Long is the doleful elegy

The trees sway.
Their branches tremble.
Their leaves fall.

Like the mother who lost her children -

How she wails -
How she trembles -
How her tears fall.

Like the little girl -
Looking for her family.

Blow, cold wind – break my stone heart.
Give the pieces to the orphan boy,
To the boy who saw his friends die,

To the little girl  -
who found her family buried in a mass grave -

Give them the pieces of my stone heart -
They’ll throw them at the approaching tank,
At the bulldozer that raised their homes.

The stories you bring are too much to bear -
Take them to another place. I am weak.
My signatures don’t change decisions;
My hands can neither handle guns nor bandages.

Cold wind, lament, and I’ll lament with you -
but this is all I can do.

Dec. 27 of 2009 marks the first anniversary of the Israeli attack and invasion of the Gaza Strip. At least 1,300 Palestinians – among them some 220 children – were killed in Israel’s 22-day assault of Gaza in the winter of 2008-09, and over to 5,400 were wounded. – IMEU