Sound Bites
A poem by DC-based spoken word poet Safiyya Abdullah, friend of a friend (there seems to be a lot of those ...:)).
We are a people of reality TV
That is, we are a people of sound bites
We watch TV and think that someone's week. ~
that is 168 hours, which is 10,080 minutes,
weed that down to 36 minutes
(after time out for commercials)
is the whole story…
And we watch it fervently,
Diligently,
Determinately,
Slavishly,
No, make that slave-ish-ly…
Because that is what we have become
Slaves to the sound bites of society…
Never taking the time
to train our minds
to find what is behind
these sound bites.
So let me give U some sound bites of my own:
Sound Bite:
Most populated real estate on the face of the earth: Gaza
Sound Bite:
50% of the population under 18
Sound bite:
52% of the population lives below poverty.
And that was 18 months ago,
before the economic embargo
Sound Bite:
This densely populated area is walled off on all sides,
preventing materials, food, supplies, and people from getting in or out.
Sound bite:
December 26th: Chanukah, Jewish Holiday,
the Sabath~can't work day
Sound bite:
Day who-knows-what of an 18 month old blockage denying food, medicine, supplies
Day who-knows-what of a 50+ year old internationally illegal, immoral, occupation
DAY ONE:
Sound Bite:
Lunchtime shopping
Kids coming home from school
Sister across the street had a miscarriage
Because there wasn't enough food to eat…
Funeral yesterday…cousin died of dysentery
No medicine shipments in a month of Sunday's
Bread lines 13 hours long,
Sound Bite:
Zainab, mother of 3, boiling water
To soak the peas, make the tea,
and soften the day old bread for her daughter
til her 10 year old son gets home with more bread…
WHOOSH! BANG!
Sound Bite:
Zainab flies across the room…
sits up in a daze
automatically makes her way
across the kitchen…
Got 2 turn off the gas…
What was it that caused that blast?
Another follows and wails begin
while mothers pour out in the streets and holler
their children's names
Searching streets for children who
were just playing games,
or coming from school,
or standing in line waiting for water or fuel
WHOOSH! BANG! WHOOSH! BANG!
Sound Bite:
Here comes more missiles once again
Sirens blaring.. then silent
As missiles hit police stations,
fire houses
civilian populations
already under siege
now besieged by F15s
Paid for with US dollars…
Make that our dollars
taken from food stamp programs
And education scholar-
ships
firing missiles from the Israeli navy
Hitting families
playing on beaches
just longing 4 a small distraction
from a long life of occupation…
DAY TWO:
Sound Bite:
Hospitals overflowing...
beds, floors with rivers of blood pouring
No way 2 triage the wounded
Lives, as always in God's hands
Doctors slipping on blood soaked
floors as they struggle
to treat bodies burned and mangled
Hospitals turning away injured
No room inside or out
As minute by minute the death count
Rises
as the bombing continues another day
Gaza is deafened by the world's silence
Sound Bite:
Bodies litter the streets
there a young girl's hand
still clenching her book
next to it an old boot
within it the foot
of an elderly man who once ran
trying 2 save her
as she stood frozen with fear
DAY THREE:
Sound Bite:
More of the same
Israel saying they're only playing a game
Started by Hamas
Alas,
Did we forget
The cease fire was violated election day
Nov 4,
When the Israeli Army
invaded the Gaza Strip?
Or did we just miss that sound bit?
Sound Bite:
Israel saying they warn the civilians before
dropping bombs
Give them a call on their telephone:
Ring…Ring…Hello, U there under siege that have no where to go…
This is the Israeli Army just placing a courtesy call
telling U we are about to drop in your neighborhood
for a friendly visit
Or was that a bomb hit.
Doesn't matter…
ain't got no phone anyway…
all the lines & satellites have been hit by the second day
DAY FOUR:
Sound Bite:
Worldwide demonstrations galore
As concerned citizens pour
Out into the streets
Begging someone to but an end to this
Genocide and massacre…
But once again just being ignored…
So ladies & gentlemen
of privileged conditions,
I apologize for ruining your peace & serenity
with my sound bites of another's reality
but maybe tonight
when U kiss your children or your lover
goodnight
these sound bites
will replay in your sleep
and U will become outraged…
decide to become engaged…
decide find the courage
to enter the sound stage
and stop listening to sound bites.
posted by Laila @ Saturday, January 17, 2009
7 Comments:
Very nice ...
i would love watch this performed
Mi solidaridad con todos los que sufren esta guerra irracional.
Desde Chile ,un abrazo
Here's a translation, for those who don't read Spanish:
"My sympathy to all those who suffer this irrational war.
From Chile, a hug"
I think it's a very rational war, to the contrary. People assume that Zionists want peace and coexistence. False. They have an interest in war and conflict. War and conflict means more territory for Zionists; or as they call it, and as Richard Seymour pointed out on his blog, "security corridor."
And Zionists want the whole of Palestine.
And here's the translation for José:
"Creo que es una guerra muy racional, de lo contrario. La gente asume que los sionistas quieren la paz y la coexistencia. Falso. Ellos tienen un interés en la guerra y los conflictos. La guerra y los conflictos significa más territorio para los sionistas, o como lo llaman, y como Richard Seymour señaló en su blog, "corredor de seguridad".
Y los sionistas quieren la totalidad de Palestina."
Bless you Laila, for publishing this, and bless the internet, otherwise we in the states would have NO way of knowing what was going on over there.
We've been doing the usual, over here. Writing, calling, blogging, I've lost several friendships over this, but it has got to stop. Thank God a ceasefire was called, Please God they keep it. Next step, the world must step in to clean up Gaza, and I'm talking mops and brooms and bread, not bombs; we must end the blockade. May God keep you.
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