jabaliya

 

a woman wears a bell carries a light calls searches through madness of deir yessin calls for  afah for bread orange peel under nails blue glass under feet gathers children in zeitoun sitting  ith dead mothers she unearths tunnels and buries sun onto trauma a score and a day rings a bell she is dizzy more than yesterday less than tomorrow a zig zag back dawaiyma back humming suba back shatilla back ramleh back jenin back il khalil back il quds all of it all underground in ancestral chests she rings a bell promising something 

 she can’t see faith is that faith is this all over the land under the belly of wind she perfumed the love of a burning sea concentrating refugee camp crescent targeted red

a girl’s charred cold face dog eaten body angels rounded into lock down shelled injured shock weapons for advancing armie   is clearing forests sprayed onto a city of sage tree human skin contact explosion these are our children

she chimes through nablus back yaffa backs shot under spotlight phosphorous murdered libeled public relations

a bell fired in jericho rings through blasted windows a woman carries bones in bags under eyes disbelieving becoming numb dumbed by numbers front and back gaza onto gaza for gaza am sorry gaza am sorry she sings for the whole powerless world her notes pitch perfect the bell a death toll