Water and fire – Flickr – Alcino.jpg CC by SA 2.0 WikimediaCommons
By Violet White
Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC on 25th February 2024 – Day 142 – in protest at the genocide in Gaza, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
By Day 142
you had not lost patience, Joe;
your equanimity was…
Amazing.
Still able to see babies
starve without flinching,
you stuck with it. Still
up for it when we arrived
at the 17,000 orphan mark.
Nerves of steel steadied you
through all those amputations
without anaesthetic,
the children with 75% burns
and no pain relief,
the catatonic toddlers…
I could go on…
Aaron Bushnell now
(active service, US Air Force),
he was not like you, Joe;
he melted
in the face of such
difficulties.
He wasn’t very patient
about the tens of thousands
murdered in their beds
by his country’s bombs.
Aaron
didn’t have the steel it takes
to keep the pleas
of the destitute at bay,
the anguish
of the mothers and the fathers
unable
to feed their hungry children
when 2000 trucks of aid
sit languishing
a few hundred metres
away.
Aaron
couldn’t stand it.
He’ll never be a candidate
for the job you did, Joe.
Aaron
wouldn’t have
the stomach for it.
Aaron
took himself to the
Israeli Embassy in DC.
He needed to tell them (and you)
just how much
the mothers and the fathers,
the grans and the grandads,
the babies and the children,
the teens, the aunties and uncles,
the cousins, the siblings…
had all got under his skin
(much thinner than yours, Joe).
He did it for them, Joe.
He did it for them.
Because you were his CO.
And he wanted you to know
just how much they matter…
This much, he said,
as he poured
the accelerant over his head,
wearing his uniform;
this much, he said,
as he put the match
to his trouser leg,
mindful that heat rises;
this much, he said,
as he screamed
‘Free Palestine!’
over and over and over again…
