Artwork © Robert Fleming

 

Samhain

It’s the time when bonfires are lit
when it’s easier to cross into another world
when places are set at the table to welcome the dead,
to consume the witches
so the evil in the world dies
in the heat and the smoke and the flames.

But this Samhain in Gaza the evil is spreading
in the smoke and ashes.
Everywhere is aflame
nowhere is safe
and everyone is a witch,
the old the young and even the dead must burn.

Gazans have become the new Nemeds
having already given their corn and milk
now they must give two thirds of their children
and watch as they are consumed in the fire.

It’s the custom after all.

 

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality.

Robert Fleming is a gay-man, word-artist, and scientist born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada who emigrated to Lewes, Delaware, United States. Robert follows his mother as a visual artist and his grandfather as a poet. In 1986 he published the second psychological research study on gay men’s response to AIDS in United States. Then, in the 1990s he was a contributing member of the District of Columbia’s Triangle Artist group. Now Robert is a founding member and contributing editor of Devil’s Party Press’ Old Scratch Press.