Michal Lowkain

Michal Lowkain

Michal Lowkain is a Dubliner since 2006. He is one of the winners of the Bread and Roses Award 2023 and his poems are included in the 2019 Culture Matters’ anthology Children of the Nation

Two poems on the genocide in Gaza
Monday, 08 April 2024 15:37

Two poems on the genocide in Gaza

Published in Poetry

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by Michal Lowkain

a friend from my youth
is a zionist
he loves building
idf models
including bulldozers
the originals are used
to destroy
palestinian homes

and hopes

and lives

i asked him
is there a figurine of
rachel corrie attached?
no it wasn’t
no little houses or
little palestinians
either

but you can
always use your
genocidal imagination
can’t you?

we’re less and less
attached

same with
another one
who’s becoming
more and more
white and
right now
israeli apartheid
warms the cockles
of his heart

and what about
your hobby
during
the genocide?

you need to be careful though
as many around do not like
this word
you could be attacked
or at least caught
by algorithms
and banned

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of course it’s nothing
compared with being
bombed starved
mutilated and wiped out
in genocidal attacks

genocide
genocide
genocide

i was supposed to
write a poetic poem but
i’m writing this instead

apartheid israel
murders civilians in gaza

and

IT’S GENOCIDE!

***

michal lowkain disappearing world

hey everyone would rather prefer garlic than white phosphorus in their dishes

by Michal Lowkain

gaza
stripped
of
water
food
electricity
(we
must
take
the
power
back
anyway)
homes
rights
dignity

stripped
of
children
stripped
of
childhood

naked
blindfolded
damaged
mutilated
colonised
displaced
murdered
ignored
ridiculed

reduced
to
rubble

yes
we’re
quite
busy
here
we’re
staying
occupied

and you
israel
what’s your plan?

we’re the victims

so

let’s kill them all
nakba them again
send them anywhere
to egypt
to the sea
to the moon
or a black hole
(our yankee friends
could be of assistance)

we can see
no civilians
on the streets
playgrounds
in hospitals
schools
or prams

so

let’s kill them
human animals
gas arabs
gas gaza
bomb them
boom boom boom
again and again
or just
starve them
all in all
they love their
hunger strikes

and besides

we love the smell of
white phosphorus
and their mourning

Both images above are by Michal Lowkain