Jeff McCallum

Some days, I am just too sad

I can not  write because somewhere in the Israeli Colony

of Palestine

they are building roads

for Israelis only

and fences twenty feet high

and I believe in Israel

I can not write because somewhere in the American Colony

of Iraq

they are building bridges of hate

and opportunities for oil companies

with a private army 

and I believe in America

I can not write because somewhere in Israel

Christians are made to wait like cattle in a feed lot

to return to their own homes

and I believe in Israel

I can not write because somewhere in America

nameless souls are held without habeas corpus

and tortured in the name of peace

And I believe in America

I can not write because I remember the White Papers 

and the Declaration of Independence

as the seeds of freedom

I can't write because I remember the  history of hatred

and see it blooming again 

a noxious weed in a  field of poppies

When will the signs go up on the water fountains

if there is to be water in Palestine

and I believed in Israel

When will the curfew come to my neighbourhood

or the secret police

and I believed in America

When will the religious right change its name to Al Qaeda

so we will recognize them for what they truly are

and I believed in America

When will Zealots demand not settlements

but death for non-settlers

so we can call them as they have called their persecutors

and I believed in Israel

I can not write because I grieve

I mourn the world they leave us

my tears a lake of frozen hope