Words
U.S. troops liberated death camps
in the decade before my birth.
My parents didn’t use the word fascism.
But I knew what it meant.
Only two years before my birth,
Israel was declared a state.
My parents didn’t use the word, Nakba.
And I didn’t know what it meant.
The catastrophe for the Palestinians
was blamed only on their leaders.
Israel’s occupation,
Biblically vindicated.
When I understood the Nakba,
the homes destroyed,
the olive groves plundered,
the people cast out,
I felt alone.
When I read about the daily indignities
in the prison that is Gaza,
I felt alone.
When Israelis were massacred,
I felt alone.
When Jews have a right to return,
that is denied to Palestinians,
I feel alone.
In the privilege of my loneliness,
I talk to my grandchildren
about the Nakba.
And I look for miracles,
Lonesome Israelis and Palestinians,
Jews and Muslims
in that place of fire,
sharing their trauma,
their land,
their dreams,
their destiny.
Len Shindel began working at Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point Plant in 1973, where he was a union activist and elected representative in local unions of the United Steelworkers, frequently publishing newsletters about issues confronting his co-workers. His nonfiction and poetry have been published in the “Other Voices” section of the Baltimore Evening Sun, The Pearl, The Mill Hunk Herald, Pig Iron, Labor Notes and other publications. After leaving Sparrows Point in 2002, Shindel, a father of three and grandfather of seven, began working as a communication specialist for an international union based in Washington, D.C. The International Labor Communications Association frequently rewarded his writing. He retired in 2016. Today he enjoys writing, cross-country skiing, kayaking, hiking, fly-fishing, and fighting for a more peaceful, sustainable and safe world for his grandchildren and their generation. Shindel is currently working on a book about the Garrett County Roads Workers Strike of 1970 www.garrettroadstrike.com.