Basman Aldirawi

The Body of Santa

The Palestinian civil defense found bits
of his hat, his red suit, and a few fragments
from his bag of presents, perhaps.
They continued removing rubble by hand.

The body of Santa was never found.
Some witnesses claim they saw him
distributing presents in Ahli hospital
before the bombs destroyed it.

After the killing of Santa in Gaza,
Mrs. Claus applied to the U.S. government,
to investigate the murder of her husband
and the mysterious absence of his body.

Israel reassured the U.S. president
that they will investigate the crime,
the mistake, the incident, the tragedy.
Odd how their tongues keep slipping.

The IOF has dropped a new American bomb
that evaporates bodies, a relief to Israelis,
who fear even dead Palestinians as evidence
more than they fear Hamas.

One witness claims he saw Santa resurrected
and ascending into the sky.
Maybe he is showing God his stained bag of
the remaining presents—flesh, heads and bones.

Published on We Are Not Numbers