Rhea Gupte

There is no conflict
Between the coloniser and the colonised
Where one wields strength of arms, in numbers,
Sponsored by the world’s biggest powers.
It’s now been several weeks
Of shivering people, dying children,
bleeding skulls,
bodies under rubble,
decomposing.
Men and women
losing entire families to bombs and guns.
They can be threatened beyond death,
they take away their olive trees,
snatch away identities.

They go after those with pens
the deep thinkers, the writers, the poets, the healers,
those who see the shackles and name them for what they are
those who weave flowers from the blood of the injured and scarred
those who change minds, plant hope, which bullets cannot silence or quell.
those who see beyond that which cannot be sold, hearts which refuse to sell.
I wish freedom wouldn’t need to be distributed,
if only
it breathed,
as the clouds and the wind and the trees,
if safety was not a sham but a reality,
but never in history,
has freedom existed
with the oppressor simply wanting
the oppressed to be free.
Yet they hold these bodies,
warm in flesh and blood,
minds full of hopes and dreams.
They gather the pieces broken
and trampled over, seed by seed.
They collect the words and cries
this world may never forget
this world should be ashamed to survive.

100 plus days. Of witnessing this genocide.

Bleur raised funds for Gaza Sunbirds who are providing community-led aid in Gaza. 100% of the proceeds of this auction were donated to supporting their frontline initiative on the ground. My artwork Grief from my Wildflowers series amongst works of 28 artists at The Auction Collective who came together to draw a line in the sand in solidarity with Gaza.