My Cargo – from Love Letters to Gaza
January 19, 2012
My poem ‘My Cargo’, read by actor Jon McKenna, was the first of a reading of letters and poems from Calder Bookshop Theatre’s ‘Love Letters to Gaza’ project at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s ‘Letters from Gaza’ event at Conway Hall, remembering the horror of Operation Cast Lead and the ongoing occupation of Palestine. 18 January 2012.
My Cargo
Gaza, my cargo is not Love (God knows you have enough of that)
Gaza, my cargo is not Hope (they rained bombs but it never crushed your spirit)
Gaza, my cargo is not Compassion (you have been embraced by all faiths and none)
Gaza, my cargo is not Empathy (though yes it hurts us all to see you suffer)
Gaza, my cargo is not Respect (the boats aren’t big enough, the sea not deep enough)
Gaza, my cargo is not Restraint (that pointless modesty)
Gaza, my cargo is not Wisdom (a timeless oddity)
Gaza, my cargo is no abstraction – it’s people, people, people.
