Samson’s Riddle: A Brief Reflection on the History of Gaza
Chris Ellery
December 10, 2023
”And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle.”
Judges 14:14 (King James Version)
When Samson slew a lion
with his two bare hands
he was not expecting honey
from the rotting carcass.
O Gaza, strength through centuries
of many nations,
how many times have you seen
the shredding of your children,
how many times have you heard
the wind-swept silence of annihilation?
And yet again the armies.
And yet again the fire and slaughter,
as if butchered and butcher be two,
like pillars in a temple.
And yet again your fathers cry,
“We only wish to die!”
When some new Samson, jinn-like,
grants their wishing,
who will harvest the mangled corpses
to savor the stinging sweetness
of their perishing?
Poems by Chris Ellery have appeared recently in Writing Texas, The Christian Century, and Wholeness: A Wising Up Anthology. His most recent collection of poems is Canticles of the Body, an attempt to superimpose the feasts and fasts of the Christian liturgical cycle and the chakras of Kundalini Yoga.
