A Universe Is Gone

Remember the Palestinian child
caught in a crossfire, in a lethality of rage?
Crouching behind his father?
Crying with desperate faith

in his abu, his shield?
Moments later, the caption said,
the boy was dead,
his father forlorn

with wounds that will never heal.
Each day dawn comes with new grief.
Neither the garrison state
nor the tender virgins console Abu.