all wars are grotesque.
but some wars are uglier than others.
wars where more children die than soldiers.
the image of the beautiful little girl in blue pajamas
tossed away like a discarded flower in a field in Lebanon
her delicate body curled
in the position of the newly born
although she is newly dead
the frail little hand touching her side
death not able to take away the luster
of her beautiful long black hair
how could the Israeli bomb be so blind ?
the evil of war never had greater clarity for me
than the image of the beautiful little girl in blue pajamas.
a soldier from either side could have been taken,
but this is the season for killing children.
whore bombs search for fresh cherubic faces,
steal childhood away like thieves in the night.
you cannnot hear me little girl in blue pajamas.
I do not even know your name, but I weep for you.

Oh, how I weep for you.
The beautiful little girl in blue pajamas is dead.
Damn the war! Damn all wars!
Is it possible for anyone to believe
there is a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Christian God
after seeing the picture of the
crumpled little body in blue pajamas?
If there is a God,
why is he so uncaring?
No matter how vile the war,
he is always a survivor.
people still pray to him,
but what about the children.

Does God care that innocent Lebanese children
are victims of Israel’s mass revenge?
their Lebanese mothers and fathers,
a kind and moral people,
martyrs of war for centuries,
now seem doomed.

Beautiful little girl in blue pajamas,can I ask you some
questions that haunt me? :
Were you paralyzed with fear in your last moments of life ?
Does blood stain your beautiful blue pajamas?
Could you smell the fragrance of the wild flowers behind you
or only the sulpher from bombs?
Did you have a good morning on the day you died?
Was there enough food and water for breakfast,
or did your stomach hurt from hunger?
This is a strange question, but, did you ever eat an
Ice cream cone?
I hope so.
If you were given a chance to be an adult ,
would you have children as beautiful as you?
Will your parents hate every child your age,
Muslim and Jew alike, without crying and
cursing their fates because of their great loss?
Will your lifeless body be placed in a small wooden casket
and put in the special burial plot you deserve or,
will your fate be an anonymous mass grave?
Your death, no the vivid impression left by
the picture of your death, has left me angry and confused.
I am sorry but your picture was the last thing I wanted to see.
It puts a human face on war for the first time
where more children die from Israeli bombs than Hezbollah.

The war is more real than any war
I have known because of you.
I grow more distant from my country every day,
as it embraces the immoral stance of war in Iraq
no matter what happens to the children.
I cannot turn your image off, it haunts me so.
Would you be alive today, beautiful little girl
in blue pajamas, if the United States
was still a moral beacon for the world?
last night I named a star for you,
and reached to touch it.
it seemed so far away,
so very far away.
that’s what happens when there are more children
killed than soldiers in war.
you are still alive inside me.
perhaps your sweet essence will one day
warm a heart full of bitterness
because you were taken before you had a chance :
to laugh one more laugh
sing one more song
dance one more dance
and love and be loved
by the people you were stolen from
in this war against children.