Sir: Most, if not all our African democracies were cynically cobbled together, in service of imperial interests. Our centres of governance, very barely hold together the disparate, hodgepodge entities, that comprise our young, fledgling democratic nations.

With the ominous ongoing Hamas – Israel war, the fragile, precarious, political stability of African nations, has been further eroded. The horrendous hostilities, unequivocally, has the potential to compound long-standing, religious and ethnic tensions, ceaselessly percolating below the surface of our societies.

My poem is intended to be a voice for peace and progress, in the troubled region.
Israel and Palestine: Isaac & Ishmael

This land is yours and mine

Over eons and myriad passages of time.
Of a truth, and written in the stars; we both belong
Ergo, we can live together and get along.
Singing comforting lullabies and joyful songs, for blessed peace, to rule and reign.
Thus, banishing deadly blasts and bullets from the holy terrain.
Forsooth. Father Abraham weeps bitter, agonising, tears of blood.
To see hatred super-saturate, as a boundless toxic-flood.

Train our hearts, wisen our minds, open our eyes, attune our ears.
To the unfruitful, futile endless-war years
We are birds of a feather
Nesting, standing, flying, and falling together.
Bonded as one, at the hip and wing-tips
Palestine’s metallic-blue sunbird and Israel’s orange-crowned hoopoe.
Share the skies, soaring heavenwards in synchronicity, shining, jewel-like plumage aglow.
Yet, yoked and bound, to the lands’ inescapable tangled-grip.
Ever wetted and soaked, by gushing human-blood spigots
Callously operating to hijack harmony; and to peace – prohibit.

Flowing with warm milk and golden honey from Abraham’s bosom
The hallowed earth rebels against unseemly fratricide-crimson
Of existential import, yearns to nurture green shoots of forgiveness, humility, mercy, and love.
And conjoined to heaven, with one voice, calls for the triumph of sirenic turtle-doves
Whilst hawks of war, underscore, flawed and feeble, United Nations orchestrations
Thus, calm and peace, rests with the progeny of Isaac and Ishmael: Beleaguered Israeli and Palestinian nations.

Israel’s passionate-red anemone, and Palestine’s magical-purple faqqua iris
Tokens of unrivalled, unspoilt beauty, and glimpses of untainted paradise
Never cruel, combative, or polarising; happily co-exist, at peace and in unity
Unspoken, soundless songs; each a trusty messenger of sacred, benevolent deities
Bearers of life, light, laughter, and love

Both; silky, satiny, regal visitations of the One Supreme God; from above.
“Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love,”
– 1 Corinthians 13:13.
• Irene Fowler.