They count the bombs, the fatalities, the casualties, the dollars, the wheat fields… and they speak of reconstruction – can they reconstruct the air? The water? The skies? The soil?
Can they reconstruct life?
They speak of cultural heritage, of the infrastructure, of the gas and the oil. They speak of the power,
of the roads, of livestock… but can this ever exist on a perished land?
Are they mesmerized?
They think the bombs were dropped on Syria alone. No. They’re in the skies… in the air… in their lungs, in their eyes… in all the coming generations. Have they thought to count the lives that won’t have a chance to live here… or anywhere else perhaps?
Are they mesmerized?
They won’t be when the waters rage and devour their homes… when the crops are scarce for all, when hearts are fickle, and when cities are walled.
They’re mesmerized now, but tomorrow, when they seek shelter, they’ll remember that I am shelter… they’ll come to realize there is no shelter when shelter is raging.
Are they mesmerized?
Has my picture made the frontpage? Has it gone viral? Has it won them ‘likes’ and ‘comments?’ Have they ‘liked’ and ‘shared’ it and written poetry and shed tears? Have they likened me to all the Syrians? To their society, to their hearts, to their land?
But have they thought of tomorrow?
Yes, a new day, and my picture is archived… but tomorrow is born of today, and today is born of yesterday.
They want power, oil, land… but have they forgotten it’s one land? If one garden withers, the next follows… and the next, and the next, and the next – until they live on a blazing ball.
I burn on the inside… and so does Mother. Are they mesmerized?
They set all my sisters on fire. They said, “Let it burn; it’s only Syria.” But those fumes travel in the air… into their lungs and into their eyes and into their bloodstream and into their hearts.
It’s not only Syria, it’s Earth… it’s their waters, its their skies.
All the chemicals dropped here will travel across the planet, and their children, like the Syrian girl who sleeps here, will lose their beautiful locks… and I hold the whole world accountable for this.
I burn on the inside… and so will all of them, but then it might be too late. Are they mesmerized?
They dropped their bombs in Syria, in Libya, in Tunisia, in Iraq, in Sudan, in Yemen… all for what? They say for the future generations… but will there be any riches and land left for them?
If anything, the future generations will curse them. Are they mesmerized?