Moonscape

today a reporter described what’s left of Gaza
as a “moonscape” and I wondered,
what moon looks like this?
I see no craters, no frozen seas
just chalky limbs dangling between
slabs of concrete that once were
ceilings and floors holding space for life
homes for countless families now
turned into tombs for thousands of
children who never knew lunar lightness
only the gravity of living in a prison
designed to destroy
dignity

Zetta Elliott’s poetry has been published in numerous anthologies. Her first YA collection, Say Her Name, won the 2021 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart was named a 2021 Notable Poetry Book by the NCTE.