In advance of the Portsmouth Performers for Palestine event, brought to you in association with Star & Crescent, the University of Portsmouth, the Universities of Sanctuary and Unite the Union, we present a poem by writer and academic Deborah Shaw, who will be performing at the gig.
Complicit
Am I complicit?
We are all complicit?
Yes, but
Am
I
Complicit?
Is this the doing of my people?
Where am I in all this?
Are they my people? Am I their person?
My family?
Yes
My friends?
Yes
The community?
That’s complicated
The food?
No question
Those whose speak out?
YES
My long long heritage?
Yes
But this?
No
‘No’
A tiny word
Too small and quiet
To capture the enormity of it all
The everyday murders the destruction of the living land and all that grew was
built is trying to survive
The starvation
No
Too tiny to protest all those words of righteous anger
All the bombs
All the children
All the grown-up children
‘Yes, but they’
I am not ‘they’
I can only speak of my people
And of my pain and endless shame
You can see Deborah and others perform on June 11th. Book free tickets for the event here.
Image courtesy of Portsmouth Performers for Palestine.
