No Peace, No Love, Just War

By Kevin Masmela

In August of 1969 over half a million people waited on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, for a three-day

music festival known as Woodstock. A gathering that embodied three days of peace, music, love & drugs.

In October of 2023, close to 4,000 attendees were on a farmland near the Gaza-Israel border for a music

festival known as Nova. Only this time instead of peace there was war, instead of music there were

gunshots, instead of love there was blood, & instead of being high off drugs, the people were high off the

smell of death...

An adrenaline rush

you can’t buy in a dime bag

hashtag over 200 massacred

by gunshots buried inside the beat

in sync with the way your feet move

when they go numb from the vibrations

sensations you get when the rockets

are disguised as your favorite song—

What can go wrong

in a place like this

the first show to ever exist

in someones life

because music brings life—

Sirens at sunrise warning you to flee

scenes of third degree you never wanted

the type that makes your body sink

the one that makes your mind think

twice about life, my life, their life, our lives

gone in a flash, a crash that reminds you

of the ocean, an explosion that drowns

all of your emotions at once so you don’t feel

the blood on your hands when their beat finally

stops —

By Kevin Masmela