Another bomb.
Dust hanging in the air.
Names becoming prayers.

Then the brooms, shovels- bare hands.

Men sweeping destruction into piles.
Someone lifting fallen fruit back into a crate.
A chair turned upright.
Resilience clutched.

The killed carried away.
The wounded gathered close.
Hearts holding infliction from injustice.
The street returning to itself.

I watched in awe.

How does the heart continue after so much breaking?
How does morning still arrive inside the body?

Faith, courage, honor, belief in Palestine-
deeply sacred.
Tea poured. Floors washed. Shops re opened.
Children called home to tents before dark.

Life continuation. 

A kind of courage I do not know how to name.

To live fully while standing beside ruin.
To keep tending to ordinary things.
To sweep the ground that is home.



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