at what cost

to the wielding hand

when staunch defense

becomes wind whipped

and brutal vengeance?

who pays heartless blood

with soulless obliteration

returned a thousand fold

amidst the groaning sighs of Kaddish

pain-mingled with Salat al-Janazah

while hate grows like a field of weeds

as expansive as the waterless desert?

only the dead and the dead at heart

in memory of the ones who no longer care;

and all the voices sound the same

as they wail and rail beneath a pale sun

that rides forth indifferent to the tears,

only the dead and the dead at heart

at the cost of a life lived and a beating heart.