Refaat’s rest
it is not enough they tracked you
it is not enough they threatened you
it is not enough they targeted you
it is not enough they assassinated you
it is not enough your whole body was not found
today
when at last you have been buried
with the members of your family
killed at your side
when at last you have a grave
today
your mother, your remaining family
your students
and your friends
could not easily
place the tombstone
they had lovingly engraved
not because it is heavy –
they would have lifted mountains –
but because you lie
on the other side of the yellow line
(c) Julia Wright January 16, 2026. All Rights Reserved to what remains of the family of Refaat Alareer. My thanks to Yousef M. Aljamal.
Sifting for bones, not gold
Thanks to the journalist Ramy Abdul for bringing us the footage of a father sifting for his family’s remains – how can we not associate to not only Trump’s obssession with gold but our western culture’s long reliance on that standard.
That the subtitles in Arab are not translated is a relief because we do not deserve the vicarious intimacy of a heart-rending moment our dollars have financed.
i used to take
my son and his buddies
to California creeks
where they play-searched
for gold
in child-sized sieves
it was innocent
happy-go-lucky play
back in the day
but
the memory
will now and forever
be overshadowed
by the sight
of a Palestinian father
named Abu Ismail Hamad
as he shakes a makeshift sieve
to search
for what is way more than gold
to him:
the bones
of his wife
and children –
lustreless flecks of death
to be selected
with love and rage,
to be reunited,
an imperfect precious puzzle
with the main pieces missing,
and
somehow mourned
(c) Julia Wright January 18, 2026. All Rights Reserved to Susan Abulhawa’s playgroundsforpalestine.org, to the steering committee of the GSF and to what remains of the family of Refaat Alareer assassinated by the IOF two years ago. My thanks to Shaun King.
No ICE for Greenland
For all those who will be resisting ICE violence in Minnesota today…
our world is ruled
by tongue lapses
and sick puns
and tragic jokes
to cover up
the gaping abyss
this morning
of all mornings
on January twenty third
when the People
will turn Minnesota
into the epicenter
of anti ICE resistance
throughout the land –
the Washpo titles very literally:
City-by-City Storm Forecast
a mesmerized commentator
stammers
as she looks in real time
at the photo of a five-year-old
detained by ICE
after being used as human bait:
kids …
kids are being literally kid…napped….
meanwhile
the columnists are having a heyday
about what the Orange President
could have meant
when he mistook
Greenland
for Iceland –
a piece of ice he must have
ahh… if only ICE could do the task
and the signifier Peace
is the victim of an attempted homicide
when the Commander-in-Chief
decided he had every right
to war
since he was denied
the Nobel prize
named after that thing
that good for nothing thing
that fits no big profit algorithm
and therefore
must become obsolete..
but
Peace
our Peace
the People’s Peace
is a thing
we will shed our blood for
(c) Julia Wright. January 23, 2026. All Rights Reserved.
for Alex Jeffrey Pretti
they wrote his name
in pine cones
where the snow ran red
where candles lit and relit
had finally melted
the ice
(c) Julia Wright. January 26, 2026. All Rights Reserved.
Bait 22
while he ate
his breakfast
before going to school
his mother rehearsed him
on the words to say
if approached by ICE
just say
I am legal
and it will be
your Open Sesame
later in the day
an ICE bounty hunter
spied his daily prey
and pinned the child
to the frozen snow
as the minor repeated
the strange words
he did not understand :
I am legal, I am legal –
but his mother’s magic
did not work
right nearby
the same day
another Federal predator
forced a five year-old child
to say
Open Sesame
as he knocked on his own door
but little did the toddler understand
that when the door stayed closed
his mother inside
was magically saved
it is bait 22
(c) Julia Wright. January 27, 2026. All Rights Reserved.
