I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed in a tent.
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Death sits to eat whoever remains of the kids.
Eight bombs thump the field. Four kids killed.
We didn’t hear the F-16s until they finished their strikes,
till someone walked to the bodies and asked who was still alive.
And the dead have a name: floaters, say the men of the Border Patrol.
My veins─ river of my drowned children.
We plucked brothers from branches.
Who are these people
that kill our children in the night,
kill our brothers in broad daylight?
There are monsters beyond imagination that troll the waters.
My friends are in the streets again because again
we don’t have anywhere to put any more dead.
Who in the hell set things up like this?
What does it mean to say No to superior force?
Gather.
I hope we walk loud so
no one else dies in silence.
I imagine the sky only occupied by birds.
I can see the stars through a bullet hole in the ceiling.
Can we stop a speeding freight train loaded with our dreams
while we politely wait at the rail crossing praying and wishing for this train to slow down?
I know the world we deserve waits for us.
I’m not waiting on negotiations.
If I must die
let it bring hope.
Sources: Allen Ginsberg: Howl; Mosab Abu Toha: After Allen Ginsberg, Under the Rubble, The Ball and
the Bomb, the Wounds, On Gaza Seashore, Cold Sweat; T.S. Eliot: the Wasteland; Martin Espada:
Floaters; Danez Smith: Litany with Blood All Over, Summer Somewhere, It Doesn’t Feel Like a Time to
Write, Principles; Thulani Davis: Backstage Drama; June Jordan: Poem About My Rights; Marge Piercy:
for Inez Garcia; Jessica Care Moore: Until We Dance; Alice Walker: Gather; Joy Harjo: In Mystic;
Wardell Montgomery: This is a Great Country; Refaat Alareer: If I Die.