FROM TAMBORA TO GAZA, TWO WORLD-CHANGING SUMMERS

to Mary Shelley who authored the narrative of an era
to Lord Byron who helped the Greeks fight for their independence
to Refaat Alareer and the recently killed members of his family
to Mumia Abu-Jamal, composer of the Vampire Nation
to Susan Abulhawa, our Mary Shelley

mount tambora
in Indonesia
erupted
in 1815
with the force
of eight hundred nuclear bombs –
the biggest
volcanic manifestation
in human history

as the arctic glaciers liquefied
Napoleon’s empire was washed away
at Waterloo

slowly
country by country
tsunami by tsunami
the climate changed
and
1816
was to become known as
the year without a summer
because
the ash and gas carrying rains
spread throughout
a darkening planet

peasants
everywhere
suffered failed crops
famine
and cholera

in that volcanic summer
of desolate ice
such hunger prevailed
that the poor
started eating
donkeys and mice

on Lake Geneva
Mary Godwin,
Percy Shelley and Lord Byron
guests in a manor
were kept indoors
by the unnatural weather
and so passed the time
with a ghost story competition –
and Frankenstein was born
but also
Lord Byron’s Vampyre
reminding us
that it is the blood, sweat and tears
of the disenfranchised
that fuel the monsters

Today in Gaza
another Tambora
has risen up,
a human one this time –
and
the Palestinian pyric plumes
of resistance and fire
against colonial occupation
are raining
down
the world over
changing the
global political climate
from South
to North –
and the summer to come
will not be cooler
as two centuries ago
but burning hot
as hot as
the Peoples fighting the imperialist vampyre
can climate change it

VERONZA’S STIFF RESISTANCE

To Veronza Bower, a U.S. political prisoner now free after 50 years behind bars

i first heard
the human chimes
of your flute
at the Spirit of Mandela
Tribunal

your breath was the wind
you blew
throughout the world

your jailers
could not take your breath
away from you
and your melody
continued
to blow
through steel bars
borders
oceans
and land –
playing
a liquid dance
in our memory

unable to deprive
you
of your drumming heart
and the freedom of your fingers
on Mother Earth’s wood
your jailers
kept denying you parole –
the last time being
because you signed
these forbidden words
at the end of your letters
“with stiff resistance”

that resistance
as stiff and unbowing
as the bamboo
of your flute
saved you

(c) Julia Wright May 8th 2024. All Rights Reserved to Veronza Bowers so that he may get acclimated to his new life outside of prison
https://www.gofundme.com/f/welcome-home-veronza-bowers…

PAN ABOLITIONISM

to all the students worldwide who are manifesting both their ancestors’ dreams and their own hopes

Evergreen College
where Rachel Corrie is remembered,
Brown University
where Mumia Abu-Jamal’s archive
is alive and kickin’ ,
the Auraria Campuses, Denver,
Northwestern University,
John Hopkins University,
the University of Barcelona,
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
that has just recognized
the state of Palestine –
and more student encampments
everyday
are winning
the demands they made
of Ivy League administrations
throughout the world

victory
is
an awfully big
adventure

are we, abolitionists,
prepared
for
what we wish for ?

are we ready
not to be stunned
into disbelief
if we should win
our long distance run ?

just because
our opponents
made us feel
victory
is a luxury
that belongs to them
should we be surprised
if our labor
of revolutionary love
at long last
turns the tides ?

the universities
challenged today
in the belly of the beast
have battened too long
on slavery
and mass incarceration

we are in countdown
to Leonard Peltier’s parole hearing
under the auspices
of Veronza Bowers’ recent freedom –
as the whole wide world
voted for the membership of Palestine
at the General Assembly
minus five percent
of rogue defeated nations –
among them
the US of A

let us stand poised
to seize the time

Nkrumah said
the independence of one African state
is meaningless
unless it is linked to the independence
of all African states

we Pan Abolitionists say
the freedom of one political prisoner
is meaningless
unless it is linked to the freedom
of them all

NO CHILD’S LAND

“My heart makes my head swim”
“Black Skin, White Masks” by Frantz Fanon

my little heart
i can hear it beat
so fast
i can’t keep up with it
and i dizzy
and my head swims

the time i have to live
is measured
not by a watch
i don’t have
but by the trajectory
between their bombs
and me

i want to die
says a Palestinian child
and in the background
are the waves
and the sand
no longer playgrounds
but scattered with childhood mines
he is too weak
to skip around

BETWEEN UNSPEAKABILITY AND SILENCE

we are being told
with unmistakable words
that there are no words
left
that can do justice
to the people of Gaza

spoken word
we are informed
cannot speak
of the unspeakable

the reality of genocide
is in livestream
yet most of it is off screen

but Martin Luther King
let us know
there comes a time
when silence is betrayal

so what is it to be ?

accepting that there are no words
or giving in to betrayal ?

how do we escape
the double bind ?

how do we create
a space
between unspeakability
and silence ?

COUNTDOWN TO HISTORY

To Leonard Peltier from a Mumia Abu-Jamal freedom fighter

the Ivy League think tanks
have long brainwashed us
to think
that history
is a thing of the past
a dead language
to be learned by rote
once all is said and done
and cannot be footnoted
or re-run

we have long been
conditioned to think
history
has nothing to do
with the future
let alone
the present moment

but
the People’s history
is produced
by us,
workers,
who clock in
to History shifts
twenty-four seven

the contradiction is
the corporate elites burn midnight oil
to make sure
white supremacist history repeats itself
and even
program their dates
giving us advance notice
of crucial court proceedings
where the People’s narrative
will unfold in real time

we know
Leonard Peltier
will be given a last chance
at parole
on June tenth
twenty two days away

we have an advent calendar
to plan
window by window
day by day
the History we will create
to free
this gentle giant
this wounded healer
who is a beloved leader
of Indigenous Peoples
worldwide

so what will we do
from liberation front
to liberation front
to make sure
that
with the love the Che speaks about
each day’s countdown window
is opened
heartwide ?

Fighting Words

Journal of the Communist Workers league

FROM TAMBORA TO GAZA, TWO WORLD-CHANGING SUMMERS | VERONZA’S STIFF RESISTANCE | PAN ABOLITIONISM | NO CHILD’S LAND | BETWEEN UNSPEAKABILITY AND SILENCE | COUNTDOWN TO HISTORY

Poems by renowned Black leader and activist Julia Wright