Saturday, December 30, 2023

EXPLODING

MEN ARE DOING BAD THINGS AGAIN / MILD DECEMBER RAIN IN DC / GUNPOWDER SCENT KISSES THE FAR HORIZON / WORDS AREN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE / PODIUMS TUMBLE INTO THE DRY GULCH / A MARKER-SIGNED MISSILE / WHISTLES INTO THE MIDDLE / OF 100 LIVES / LIKE A DREAD METALLIC EGG / HATCHING FEVERS & DEATH FUNGUS /PRESSURE IN THE OBLITERATING RAIN / WHAT ONCE WAS STARS AND DISTANT CLOUDS / SEEN AS IDEAS OVER THE BLUE MEDITERRANEAN / IS A SKY OF WHIRRING FIRE SOUNDS / CATS SCATTER BENEATH COLLAPSED AWNINGS / SKETCHBOOK PAGES PINNED UNDER STONES / THE OUTLINE OF AN APPLE / A SLICE OF BREAD / A TEACUP / TRACED IN PENCIL / UNFINISHED


Saturday, December 9, 2023

December 8, 2023



The revolution won't be televised But the genocide will
And the Ecuador rep
Announcing the vote
Asks "¿En contra?"
"Against?" says the translator
A glassy half grin On the US rep's face
He can't believe he's on
The UN floor
The lives of thousands
Poised in the air -
Mothers and grandmothers
Children confused by the rumbles
And land shocks -
And raises his arm
The grimmest of missions
For the declining old man "En contra"
Let the buildings fall
The walls all burn down
And the mosques collapse
Mosaic tile streaked with dust
Blisters and buckles
Licked by flames
Let the libraries explode
The lines of poets
Refaat Al-Areer Mahmoud
Darwish Maya Abu Al-Hayyat
Shot into the Gaza night
Like birds rising from the ground
And flying moonward
Pages shadows verses
To read To weep To wail