IN BETHLEHEM

In Bethlehem king Herod kills the youth again:

Ahmad Ali Salah and Mohammad Khaled Issa,

fifteen both, slain by Herod's men

because - so claim Herod's men -

they tried to throw flaming bottles

on an Apartheid road at al-Khader town,

the immediate sentence being death.

Four children killed in two days in West Bank alone

while on the shores of the Roman sea

vast streams of blood in Gaza flow.

And here our Satrapy tells us

it would be wrong to sanction king Herod,

for in the eyes of our Satrapy those

who stand against Herod's rule

are the ones who are wrong;

the servants of the Satrap, smiling, announce

that we must denounce, blame

the deaths on them who fight

and do not kneel before Antipater's son,

and instead we must oppose

them and those

who would act to stop the slaughter,

for the slaughter is good and just,

blessed by the emperor in Washington.

This is what the Satrap's men declare,

announcing they will go,

seek adress and talk with Herod,

and talking with him,

ask more arms from the king,

for his arms they are daily tested

and daily drenched

in the blood of innocents

and this our Satrapy finds good and just.

24.07.2025