How Many Children Did You Kill Today?

Saleh al Bayatti, Iraqi poet and novelist living in Australia, laments Gazan killed Children

(translated from Arabic by Saleh Razzouk & Philip Terman)

How much did the number rise?

Pardon me. I am not asking

for the dollar price

that we made a mythical crowned king

in the stock market,

Nor did I ask

about the shares

in Nasdaq, Dubai.

Feel the cold

that has lasted fifty-eight days

and a longer series of an American-horror drama

made the world breathless.

I did not ask you

about the tallest colossus in Dubai

and how much it snubbed a tower

built in Babylon in ancient times

making tongues babbling.

My question was, O, Gentlemen

about the Gazan children.

Did the number rise

in the Sixtieth day

exceeding the number allowed by

the United Nations,

the Human Rights Watch

and the International Court of Justice?

It broke the numbers

of the Guinness Book of World Records.

Or is there no high or low limit,

for this number,

since the matter is up to the mode of politicians

sitting in the White House?

**

I am asking you today about

the number... this Saturday.

This ring of a continuous chain.

I did not ask about heaps

of burned-out newspapers,

the high wind blew off.

The ash of our newspapers flew too high

flapping with black wings,

then perched on the ground as grey atoms.

My question, O, Gentlemen was this:

How many children did you slaughter today?