—After Em Berry’s “Because of Us”
The English word is gauze—(a finely woven medical cloth), comes from the Arabic word غزة or Ghazza because Gazans have been skilled weavers for centuries.
There is no need to wonder
Wounds will continue
to be left open
and not because
There isn’t enough wounds
left in the world
that can’t be dressed
But because we have
ran out of all the gauzes
to save anyone that is left
Daedalus
the boy washed ashore
with melted wings, his still body lay
for days—turning and turning
one new color after another
Ilari Pass is a four-time Best of the Net nominee and other accolades, with Greatest Hits appear or forthcoming in BULL, Dialogist, South Dakota Review, Cutleaf Journal, Pithead Chapel, and others.