Beneath the Rubble

POETRY FORMAT, 22 Sep 2025

Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service

Daily atrocities
in distant lands
numb our attunement
taint our souls

Some weep
Some take refuge
in official lies
Some protest
to no avail
Some sleep
with normal dreams

Others endure nightmares
or turn to sports
Others await sleepless
craving good news
impatient for some sign
of another dawn

And those that do
dark deeds
relish alien blood
mostly feel redeemed

Feel fully human
only when alien infant children
newborn terrorists
lie beneath the rubble
Will remain sullen
or offer lame excuses
or gestures of disapproval
softening our remorse
diluting our guilt
I think not
I hope not
and yet anguish and memories
do as much good
as distant stars
Seem dress rehearsals of fools
while those with knives
are busy sharpening blades
Receptive to shouting mobs
bestowing their howls
the genocide to come
from sacred books
and revered voices
Lurking
just beyond the horizon
are bloody spectacles to come
Seen and heard by many
if at all
not as indicting happenings
but as the work of the Lord

With our ever more precarious destiny
entrusted to algorithms and robots
While waiting for the fatal other shoe to drop
or mindful of this past
rush to the nearest exit
while heeding shouts
of FIRE!

28 Aug 2025

__________________________________________

Prof. Richard Falk is a member of the TRANSCEND Network, TRANSCEND Media Service Editorial Committee Member, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, Chair of Global Law, Faculty of Law, at Queen Mary University London, Research Associate the Orfalea Center of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Fellow of the Tellus Institute. He directed the project on Global Climate Change, Human Security, and Democracy at UCSB and formerly served as director the North American group in the World Order Models Project. He also is a member of the editorial board of the magazine The Nation. Between 2008 and 2014, Falk served as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine. His book, (Re)Imagining Humane Global Governance (2014), proposes a value-oriented assessment of world order and future trends. His most recent books are Power Shift (2016); Revisiting the Vietnam War (2017); On Nuclear Weapons: Denuclearization, Demilitarization and Disarmament (2019); and On Public Imagination: A Political & Ethical Imperative, ed. with Victor Faessel & Michael Curtin (2019). He is the author or coauthor of other books, including Religion and Humane Global Governance (2001), Explorations at the Edge of Time (1993), Revolutionaries and Functionaries (1988), The Promise of World Order (1988), Indefensible Weapons (with Robert Jay Lifton, 1983), A Study of Future Worlds (1975), and This Endangered Planet (1972). His memoir, Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim was published in March 2021 and received an award from Global Policy Institute at Loyala Marymount University as ‘the best book of 2021.’ He has been nominated frequently for the Nobel Peace Prize since 2009.

JOIN THE BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS CAMPAIGN TO PROTEST THE ISRAELI BARBARIC GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA.

DON’T BUY PRODUCTS WHOSE BARCODE STARTS WITH 729, WHICH INDICATES THAT THEY ARE PRODUCED IN ISRAEL. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR HUMAN JUSTICE!

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 22 Sep 2025.

Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: Beneath the Rubble, is included. Thank you.

If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.

Share this article: email mastodon facebook 🔗 copy link

This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

There are no comments so far.