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By leena aboutalebAdded: Friday, July 19, 2024 / Used with permission. This poem published through the Poem of the Week Series is part of the Poetry Coalition's 2024 slate of programs in the spring and summer that reflect the transformative impact poetry has on individual readers and communities across the nation, and is made possible in part by the Academy of American Poets with support from the Mellon Foundation.
The genesis of this story is. A person on fire. My father drives us to my brother’s grave and I begin to cry seeing a mole trying to cross the heavied street, flush with human monstrosity. Bloomberg announces empire war supply and demand 1% increase chips SpaceX government approach dig tunnels over a century potential military tool big line of business. On the way to the graveyard, I tell my father we have no right. This country was a mistake. Last year a raccoon grabbed my finger and we crossed the street together. A white man yells my life is worth more than it and all I think is that this is the genesis of empire. The house next to the gates of my loved ones is filled with vultures, domesticated and eerie. My father says, cycle of nature. I have been obsessive about my own death the last year, ever since I surpassed my brother. Every rickle of autumn leaves I imagined my decay, the fear of my coming grave haunting me. October, a contour of horrors. I imagine the echoes, but mostly I see children and know they could be mine. I look at my blood and remember empire deems it worthless. The loves of my worlds are meaningless to bombs, despite them being the entirety of my life. I have dreams of my daughters, not yet ready for the world. Every video I look into these childrens’ eyes and want, too, for the world to see the fire. A noble martyrdom. When is it enough? Workers of the world. I am so tired of dreaming. I am so scared of movement. I want nothing more than to dissolve the passport in the sea and go home. I would rather die with my children in my arms than live behind this blood.
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Listen as leena aboutaleb reads Portal: Cyclical .
leena aboutaleb is an Egyptian and Palestinian writer who asks you to commit to the Palestinian liberation struggle. Read her work at her website.
Image Description: leena wears a pink patterned dress in a white room, her body in a halfway motion while she is turning to look toward the camera. she has black hair. there are two jackets, a purse and a Palestinian scarf hanging behind her in the room.