The World Narrowed

The World Narrowed

The world narrowed to a single point.
The war, the wars, a single point.
The Iraq Palestine Gaza sexism occupation
all that blurred to nothing.
“My back is broken.” The last words Rachel Corrie ever said.
I dropped my phone
took her head in my hands to stabilize her spine.
Nearby the bulldozers and tanks were driving.
The land scraped clean of homes,
a steel wall instead.
The world, my world, narrowed to just four people.
I held Rachel’s head.
On her right and left Greg and Will knelt beside her,
three friends told her we loved her
how awesome she was
she was going to be ok.
I observed the thin skin around her eyes and ears blackening with blood
from the bleeding in her brain.
at that moment there were just four of us in the world,
and one was dying as we held her.
This is the detail in every statistic.
A world narrowed in.
People holding their loved ones
their soft flesh
the hard metals of war

From the words of my friend Alice Coy