Poetry can exist like free form prose, and it can include visceral, horrible detail. The last two sentences, the ones that cause you to lift your chin and blink back tears, that simile about the only real place left on earth, are shocking. Good poetry strikes you, like this line does, and makes a part of you reconsider your entire perspective.
I do not pretend that the words expressed by this young woman represent all who live there, for many are fleeing, but they are powerful in their rejection of the idea that political peace is a more ethical or genuine state to live in than political warfare. She argues that no other home is even tolerable to her because they do not know how to adequately address the horrors of Gaza.
Though of quite a different subject matter and era, Street points out the language of resistance in this song. However, Genovese does not suggest rebelling against his master, just as the un-named woman does not suggest leaving Gaza, and instead looks towards a heavenly destination. This contributes to the refutation of a perspective that only allows for a home to be comfortable, and supports a notion of turmoil not being immediately non-preferable.
The perspective in question is one that assumes a home is something only characterized by warmth, candlelight, couches, creaky floorboards, oven-cooked meals, growth charts on doorjams, building forts, and reading a book by a window in winter. A home may easily be turned to rubble, hunger may become a daily occurrence, and the embraces of loved ones may become cold. This is what home is like for many people in Palestine as they are relentlessly bombed by the Israeli state.
Another example of this arises in John Street’s essay: “Music has long been a site of resistance. From the folk songs of rural England to the work songs of slaves, from the anti-war protest songs to illegal raves, music has given voice to resistance and opposition. Eugene Genovese provides this instance from the era of US slavery:
Massa sleep in de feather bed,
N*gger sleeps on de floor;
When we’uns gits to Heaven,
Dey’ll be no slaves no mo’e” (120).
which uses the elements of a home to characterize the injustice of a slave’s position.