ANTI-CAPITALIST MOSQUITOS
for Michael Schifmann who told us the parable of the mosquito
i give thanks
for smaller
and smaller blessings
today
i searched and found
an emoji
for Refaat Alareer’s kite
and lining one up
next to a butterfly
or a balloon
i hear Hope whispered
winter
has given up early
bringing premature blossoms
but also mosquitos
that teach me that
tiny and insignificant as i am
i can also make life unbearable
and bloody
for the system
even this poetry
i often doubt of
because it is after all
but words –
when i look the word up
in the dictionary
i find that it
meant
poein
in ancient Greece –
to do
to act
to produce
may my poetry
be the whir
of those
who work to suck
capitalism dry
(c) Julia Wright. March 26th 2024. All Rights Reserved to playgroundsforpalestine.org
TIME-SLIP HUNGER
To the child who was my father and to the children of Gaza
the weeds
you used to eat
when you starved
in Mississippi
now overrun
your old rusty chair
on your French farm
in Ailly, Normandy
you would obsess
about portulaca
and finally ordered the seeds
to plant in alien soil
and I wonder
whether Leon and you
would nibble on its leaves
driven by hunger
when your Papa
abandoned you
and what about the mallow
that thrives
so wildly
today in the planters
on my deck –
did you seek that out too
just as the children of Gaza
the same age as you ?
(c) Julia Wright. March 27th 2024. All Rights
THE ANCESTRALLY UNPROTECTED
they were not protected
by the first ever
united nations security council
resolution
for a so-called “lasting ceasefire”
they were not protected
by its binding status
they were not protected
by their white flags
they were not protected
by their lack of arms
they were not protected
by their humanity
as they returned to their homes
in Northern Gaza
they were shot down
then shovelled mercilessly
away
by an israeli bulldozer
like the garbage
they were supposed to be
did i imagine it –
was one of them wearing
a red shirt –
or perhaps it was the blood stains
this is
cinematographically and eerily familiar …
a child victim dressed in red
filmed
against the black and white of
a nazi concentration camp
the world cried back then
over
this little girl in red
and the film was given a prize –
may there be
a just as humanitarian sequel
filming all those
condemned to flee
who are never protected
who are always killed
as they try to return
ancestrally
unarmed
to rebuild their Palestinian homes
(c) Julia Wright. March 28 2024. All Rights Reserved to playgroundsforpalestine.org
ASK THE KITES WHETHER THEY HURT
in memory of Refaat Alareer
i dreamed
a kite from Gaza
thousands of miles away
landed
on my deck
its flapping paper wings
singed
by bullets
made in USA
you IDF soldiers
stand in fear of
the message of Refaat Alareer
and the worldwide legion
of his kites –
they are a People-protected species,
paper birds
harbingers
of a Palestinian haven
and a final return home
just as two silexes
rubbed against each other
produce a spark
a kite
rubbed against the Iron Dome
will light
the spirit of Resistance
you IDF soldiers
charge the kites
with being incendiary
but
the cluster bombs
and the white phosphorous
from Arkansas
are flown in
by you
ask the kites,
our gentle
dancing
multicolored drones,
who the arsonists are
you IDF mass killers
not only shoot down
children you maintain
are not entitled to hunger –
you also criminalize
their kites
their dreams
their right to Hope
you IDF terrorists
and other U.S. mercenaries
whose boots are on the ground
shoot down the kites
because your hubris
has imperially decided
the offshore sky
belongs to you
just as you annexed
the gas of Gaza
ask the kites
whether they hurt
in my dream
i picked up the kite
bandaged its singed wings
untangled its tired tail
and it flew off again
of its own free will
vying high
in the People’s sky
beyond
a genocide aforethought
(c) Julia Wright. March 28 2024. All Rights Reserved to playgroundsforpalestine.org
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