FRAGMENTATION OF THE SOUL

Codepink
showed photos of starving Gaza children
to AIPAC lobbyists
eating lunch –
please don’t leave that stuff
it makes us feel uncomfortable,
a young man
in a slick suit says

another asks Medea
arrogantly
as if teaching her the ABC
have you been there ?

She answers politely
that yes actually
she has several times

a plump, well nourished woman
gets up after her meal
and tears the photos up
into small fragments
methodically

how many of those children –
whose photos are ripped apart
by a human fragmentation bomb –
had already died ?

in our ancestral cultures
likenesses
of the departed
are known
to be the sacred vessels
of their souls –
to be framed
candlelit
and placed
on the altar of our hearts

Codepink activist confronts Aipac lobbyists having lunch with pictures of Gaza’s starving children:
https://youtube.com/shorts/A6N9Avi1d0Y?si=lJxFqAcBG77rBSkD

THE LUMINO OF THE PEOPLE’S EYES

there is no such thing as emptiness

– Thich Nhat Hanh, poet, activist

as far as a drone can see
miles and miles
of children’s clothes
line
a California beach –
they have been laid down
compassionately
sleeve to sleeve
seam to seam
in memory
of the children of Palestine
who can no longer
put them on

just as shells in the sand
when put to the ear
let us hear
a distant sea sound –
these disembodied clothes
if listened deeply to
will tell us the tales
Refaat Alareer prepared us for –
Rami Al Halhouli’s funeral on the occupied West Bank
with brave displays of the very fireworks
the child was killed for playing with,
little Hind’s last words ” I am afraid of the dark”
as she died alone
but heard by the world
and the cries of mothers
reminding us
of Picasso’s sonorous Guernica

meanwhile
as far as a drone can see
on a Utrecht Plaza
there are spread lovingly
thousands of pairs
of little empty shoes filled with flowers
as a memorial
to those
who continue to die
so unspeakably

and
in Gaza
as soon as precious tin cans
are emptied of sub standard
rancid so-called aid food,
the Palestinians
have begun to recycle
them as building material
to erect the tents
that will be filled
by starving
temporary survivors

back
home-bitter-home
Anthony Blinken
his eyes unblinking
and
disembodied of emotion,
poker faced
keeping his neocon cards
close to his heartless chest,
dismisses hollowly
with˙empty lies
the presence of blood
the Luminol
of the People’s eyes
can see
distinctly
indelibly staining
his impeccable shoes
his designer clothes
and his USAID-giving hands

Activists lay thousands of children outfits on California beach to symbolise Gaza’s killed children:
https://youtube.com/shorts/7ormKVj0Wqw?si=OOm3FyBAA1P3Dgjk

Thousands of shoes laid out as memorial to children killed in Gaza:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Y011uEzNJfs?si=kE17aw8VQFTWszGS

Palestinians build tent out of tin cans:
https://youtube.com/shorts/InTkPkWPWMU?si=bYWFUG2T_AtLgx8W

PAPER WINGS TO FLY BACK HOME

remembering
Refaat Alareer’s kite
and
realizing the dream
of homemade wings
to fly back home,
a small Palestinian boy
smilingly
sells paper planes
for children to play with

with his profits
as he explains
he buys notebooks
so that each torn page
can serve to fold
the manifestation of the dream –
meanwhile
this old-soul tiny entrepreneur
distributes the added value
of Hope

the only thing
he will not sell
for all the profit in Gaza
is the flag
he clumsily
proudly
drew
and keeps protectively
by his side

Displaced Palestinian boy sells paper airplanes to ‘entertain children’:
https://youtube.com/shorts/X0yhrhNnrPE?si=hRFj8xPTvAuBvsWg

THE GRIMM TALE OF GAZA

fi fy fo fum-
I smell the blood of an Englishmun
be he alive or be he dead
I will grind his bones to make my bread

– Jack-In-The-Beanstalk, old English folktale

a gaunt hungry young boy
in Gaza
climbs
to the top of an electric tower
a hopeful beanstalk
near the Egypt border
to shout
over the electrified wall
to Ogre El Sisi
in his Presidential Palace :
“I am starving.
I can’t sleep.
this is not a life”

his hunger
feeds his anger
and his anger
sharpens his hunger
in a cycle of despair

an adult
perhaps his father
at the base of the tower
warns the child
of the mortal risk
of electric shock
but the only answer he gets is :
“I wanna die”

this is the stuff
of folktales
written in the sixteenth century
when the feudal world was rampant
with famine, the Plague
and dire poverty

if Grimm and the others
did not exist
the horror in Gaza
would invent them

Children in Gaza climb electric pole near Egypt border to beg for food:
https://youtube.com/shorts/C1kGh2Klwzc?si=xqakBQT0MDaE6nmR

THE PEOPLE’S BANNER-HEADS

when Hamas
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Popular Front For The Liberation of Palestine
Palestinian National Initiative Movement
issued a joint statement
calling for
consensus and unity –
was it on a letterhead
made from blockaded materials ?

when the PAIGC
the MPLA
and FRELIMO
formed a united front
to win against NATO
back in the seventies,
did
Amilcar Cabral
Agostinho Neto
and Samora Machel
use precious time
measured in their freedom fighters’ lives
in putting together
a bureaucratic letterhead ?

once unity
from the bottom up
is achieved
then letterheads will follow

unity
is not a supplement
to be taken
every morning
with breakfast

unity –
like breaking the silence of betrayal
Martin Luther King told us about –
is not a given
but
a daily exercise,
political and spiritual
yoga

the prognosis
of our incarcerated elders
defines
how we should
spend our time

do we really think
the corporate arms
of the police state
will be impressed
just because we would hasten
to ape their letterheads ?

meanwhile
as we try to form consensus
around graphics –
unity-breakers,
the scabs of Revolutionary Love,
have long been hired
and they are still thriving
in our midst

our political immune system
is deliberately confused
by the invisible virus of division

our revolutionary unity is
a work-in-progress
as vital to victory
as Janine’s closing fist

letterheads ?
the icing-to-be
on an organizational cake still baking

meanwhile the “letters”
will be our messages to the grassroots
and the “heads”
will be our banners billowing
in the People’s winds

Fighting Words

Journal of the Communist Workers league

FRAGMENTATION OF THE SOUL | THE LUMINO OF THE PEOPLE’S EYES | PAPER WINGS TO FLY BACK HOME | THE GRIMM TALE OF GAZA | THE PEOPLE’S BANNER-HEADS

Poems by renowned Black leader and activist Julia Wright