Santa On A Combat Vehicle!
Forgive them Santa.
The children are dead before
Your arrival this year.
Don't ring the bells.
Rather bring a declaration
In your bag.
Bring for them a ceasefire.
The dead can hear too.
How will you return back
On your sleigh?
The skulls and rubble
are on your way.
Don't ask where the torsos are!
Too many limbs are heaped
and some mothers have missed
to write the names before the genocide.
Forgive them Santa
They have died so little*
The socks are under their graves
Dig up
You will find the memento of our crimes.
Don't come on sleigh this year
Wear a bulletproof jacket
And come on a combat vehicle
Forgive us
We have made this world a warzone.
*Inspired by César Vallejo's "Forgive me, Lord: I’ve died so little!
Santa In Palestine
If Jesus was born today, he’d be born under the rubble’
- Munther Isaac*
Ho Ho Ho
Is anyone there under the rubble?
...
..
.
Oh Oh Oh
Silence Silence Silence
Where are you, dear children?
Where are the trees?
Oh Oh Oh
Are you all dead?
** *
Santa returns
Leaving behind the sack
Full of prosthetic limbs.
*the pastor of the Lutheran church
What's Your Pronoun Santa?
What is your pronoun Santa?
Why do you always wear red?
Why not black, blue, green or rainbow?
Santa: The myths are captured
and marketed by the merchants.
(Moumita Alam is a poet based in West Bengal. She is the author of the poetry collection, The Musings of the Dark)
