In America they killed all the buffalo just to take away food from the natives,

made mountains of their skulls and posed proudly in photos

like they posed proudly in front of burnt bodies after lynchings in the south.

In Australia they stole the brown children and gave them to pale families

and watched their ancient civilization disappear into the toxic fumes of industry

like a sailboat into the mist.

In Israel teenagers play with buttons that cause explosions on screens

and look forward to the end of the Gaza operation

so they can leave and go play better video games.

In Gaza mothers clutch tattered pieces of flesh and clothing to their chests

and scream names that will never again be answered

and call out questions to the heavens that will also go unanswered.

And the ghosts of the buffalo roam through the ruins 

looking for their heads

while the people of Gaza comb through the rubble 

looking for their dead,

and the rest of us stare at screens and cry like babies

and ask our own unanswered questions 

of heavens clouded by the fumes of industry,

vanishing stars above a dying world

as the lights go out in Gaza

one by one.

_____________

Reading by Caitlin Johnstone.