by H. Gibrain

If you had lived just one more year
you would have seen
babies born to Palestinian mothers and Israeli fathers
nuclear disarmament and the dissolution of parliament
a cure for the megalomaniacal

if your last breath was over the cusp
of the critical demarcation
you’d have seen
cops and robbers making love
former enemies reconciled
building a nation for our indigenous future

if your lungs were shorn of wind
and your heart the pulsing ocean
when you set sail over the horizon
on your last voyage to the red desert
you would have known that we made it
to the promised land