The Good Ship Rachel Corrie

Israelis called the “Rachel Corrie” “Linda”
as they boarded it to force it into port,
they couldn’t call it by its real name
for shame of crushing everyone for sport.

It’s not enough they shot the other folk
for trying to get through the false blockade,
it’s not enough Israel defies humanity
with its hypocrite’s democracy charade

It doesn’t seem enough this well-armed country
thumbs its nose at basic civilization
for other than themselves, who suffered
such humiliating annihilation

How the world can let this continue on
is more than I can understand at all —
have we all no shame to hurry to the aid
of those who must endure Israeli gall?

America’s hands were bloody from the start,
our own natives know how just we are,
African Americans tell harrowing tales
of where we stand pretending that we’re fair.

This can’t continue as it is, for both
the Palestinians as well as Jews.
O wake us, God, from this dark nightmare
before we all hang dangling from this noose.

(Not published in a book)

Categories: Poems