It’s Raining Ash, It’s Raining Snow

An image appears upon my feed

And for a moment I am struck

A glitch in my brain as I cannot for a second

Comprehend what I am seeing

The town in which I live

The place I’m heading for the winter

Is under it’s first blanket

Of late autumnal snow

A moment to be celebrated

Snow means work and work means pay

And pay means living

And exploring and travelling again

But juxtapose this image

With the things that I have seen

From a country far closer

Just across the Mediterranean Sea

Palestine sits

With Gaza the strip

Under constant bombardment

It’s Autumn there too

White flakes drift

From sky to ground and settle

Against a muffled, dark and empty

Shadow of a background

It took me a moment

Longer at least than I would have expected

To tell where and what I was looking at

To be punched in the gut with assumptions of perspective

Is it raining ash or is it raining snow?

Dear God allow me to see and hold

To remember and speak of and cry for their struggle

No matter how far or for how long I go