Israel, you make me write terrible poetry.
A destroyed cafe
with art still hanging on blasted walls.
Israel, you have awakened shadows in me
that I thought I had made peace with.
Three dumpsters behind the public face of an American university, surrounding the chalk words on asphalt.
SAVE PALESTINE!
Target:
Boy with bags of bread
"There is no choice between life and death because death alone is present."
- Brother of Dr Tarig Haddad (from Palestine)
If not a bullet, starvation.
If not starvation, a missile.
If not a missile, a bullet.
(They just want you to know,
your life isn't worth anything.)
"To get food you have to
Walk through the sights of a sniper."
"There is a difference between starving and being starved"
- Sereen Hadda Palestinian-American
"200 of my extended family, killed." (Now snapshots
of people who look friendly, laughing,
who no longer exist.)
Israel, you are listening to the wrong voices.
They have led you down a disappearing road.
You aren't the first to murder a people
and you won't be the last
but just know that
by your actions
you have cursed yourself.
May our food taste like dust,
May our clocks lose the hour
May all our hinges rust,
May all our wine go sour.
May our water smell like a fart.
May our dreams disturb our sleep,
May our shoes fall apart
May our path always be steep.
May our seeds rot, our meat spoil,
Our wisest forget how to pray.
May all our work become toil,
Our children forget how to play.
May our horizons close us in,
May our mirrors never lie.
We cannot escape our skin
We can't deny the sky.
