One Day

One day

I sat in the eye of a needle
and squinted down at the world
watching the city
its bricks and mortar lining the streets
where bicycle wheels rotated past
the choices we made

One day I stopped to take a breath
reaching down
to blow the feathers
off a lion’s tooth
then simply waited to see
what would float past

One day in the morning I woke up
and dressed myself
I looked in the mirror
fastened the patch over my right eye
the blue-black bruise looked
pretty ghoulish if I’m honest
But it’s all relative

One day in kibbutz Be’eri
a little girl woke up
to the sound of raised voices
then cried at the sight of
her mother and brother gagged
and kneeling
guns pressed into their bodies

One day in the Gaza strip
all the boys and girls played outside
next to the bombed remains

of their former homes

of their former schools

of their parents

They waved and cheered
As the body of a teenage girl
kidnapped and stripped naked
careened past
on the back of a ute

It needs to stop

One day