By Gershwin Wanneburg
Dedicated to the Children of Gaza
we need more bombs, please. what about more bombs? more children stripped of their flesh, their hands raised in surrender, for food, for mercy, for sense to prevail.
we need more resolutions, more soldiers celebrating death. we need more lies, more holocausts, more weapons of war, more drones, more refugees, more assassinations, more hate.
no more trees. they vanish like people. bombs have staying power. they are thick-skinned. they put down roots in welcoming soil. no more rivers. we are forever unclean.
no more joy no more religion no more God no more books no more poems no more poets, in bombs we trust.
no more hands no more feet. no more eyes or ears. let them go the way of homes and libraries, markets and hospitals, schools and mosques.
no more protests, no more freedom, no more songs, no more sunsets, no more lovers’ quarrels, no more sex, no more memory, no more recognition. give us bombs instead.
no more names—we will call our streets Python, missile, Maverick,
HARM, Hellfire, Harpoon, wind demon, iron dome.
no more:
Noura Walid Abdulsalam Shaheen
Maryam Nour Al-Din Wael Daban
Fatima Louay Rafiq Al-Sultan
Watan Mohammed Abd Al-Rahim Al-Madhoon
Mohammad Al-Jabbari Said Misbah Al-Khour
Diyaa Ahmed Abd Al-Aati Saleh Moussa
Oday Mohammed Rafiq Al-Sultan
Mohammed Nidal Hisham Attallah
Ahmad Shadi Talal Al-Haddad
Masa Mohammed Youssef Nasr
Ayat Abd Al-Aziz Omar Farwana
Maalek Mohammed Shafeeq Abu-Al-Kas
Sarah Abd Al-Rahman Mohammed Hamad
Mohammed Saleh Mahmoud Al-Deiri
Mecca Ahmed Eid Abu-Sherekh
Iyad Abd Al-Rahman Jihad Muhaysen
Adam Mohammed Sameer Abu-Ajwah
Alayan Abd Al-Rahman Alayan Al-Ashqar
Alma Moumen Mohammed Hamdan
Diyaa Mohammed Zuheir Al-Bar’ai
Misk Abd Al-Hai Sami Al-Halabi
Elina Moumen Riad Al-Rifi
Ali Raed Khalil Rahmi
Younis Wissam Abdullah Afaneh
Celine Abd Al-Hadi Adel Zahir
Asil Amir Ali Al-Ashi
Mira Abd Al-Rahman Fathi Radwan
Fatima Mohammed Kamel Faisal Akela
Mohammed Abd Al-Karim Mohammed Jabir Al-Safadi
Anas Abdullah Bahaa Al-Din Sakik
Sobhi Hamdan Sobhi Hassouna
Celine Ehab Ayman Al-Bahtiti
Mohammed Mazen Abdullah Al-Sanwar
Mohammed Abd Al-Samad Maher Mohsen
George Sobhi Al-Souri
Osama Ahmed Mohammed Hamada
Elaf Karim Abdullah Al-Away
Masa Jalal Moein Al-Harkaly
Hassan Hamza Hassan Al-Omosa
Anas Abd Al-Aziz Mohammad Zahir
Niveen Mohammad Sameer Saadeh
Issam Mohammad Issam Farag
We will call them America.
Gershwin Wanneburg is a South African writer and editor, whose career credentials include Reuters news agency and the African Development Bank. See more of his work on Substack, on his website, his blog purpletolavender, and on Instagram at gershwinwanneburg.
