Apparition in Gaza

By Gail Vida Hamburg

In that place
between a river and a sea
a woman sinks
into newly shoveled earth.

Cloaked in purdah
embalmed in tears,
Isis, Pieta
pariah from Palestine,

She forgets
why grief
for another son she must bury
is only the size of this poem

Disremembered
while September’s dirge
multiplies in girth
wider than the world.