~for Gaza (with a line borrowed from Whitman)
by Khadija Anderson
there is/was a building
now some rubble and char
a red dust covered toy
broken window
staring through it were eyes
brown or green
a torn curtain flutters through the window
a scarf flutters in the wind
the frame used to be a frame
now chaos
a purposeful destruction
becoming the future where you are gone
the battle irrelevant
time passes long and long
Khadija Anderson returned in 2008 to her native Los Angeles after 18 years exile in Seattle. Khadija’s poetry has been published in Pale House, Unfettered Verse, Washington Poets Association’s online whispers & [Shouts], CommonLine Project, Qarrtsiluni, Gutter Eloquence, Killpoet, Wheelhouse 9, and many other online and print journals. Khadija was a 2009 Pushcart Prize Nominee and she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. Her book, History of Butoh, was published in 2012 by Writ Large Press.
