Slingshoot This [Gaza-Bound Poem]
Posted by Aysha El Shamayleh | Filed under Poetry, Print
Arabia holds Palestine in her drought-cracked palms,
As if its her miscarried fetus,
Blued,
Only strips of what it once was
Watch her shove it back into her womb,
An Arab woman refuses to give birth to death,
This is as Palestinian as the intifada,
From Qubbat al-Sakhrah
To Kanisat al-Qiyamah,
Pass by the Wailing Wall,
And shake off the dust,
Will you promise to continue believing in fragile dreams
Even after they tear them down,
Even if it leaves you with nothing but pain,
As much pain as digging up limbs and scraps of flesh from under rubble,
slowly you see it so perfectly resembles someone you love,
And they’ve been missing for so long
Will you promise to choose to live after this?
When their soldiers come marching into this Gaza strip,
Suffocating our melodies into their lethal rhythms
When even this earth starts shaking its hips to their bombs,
a soldiers feet starts stomping the concrete.
Will you belly dance to the beats until he bows down to you
Dance as if to prove to everyone nothing can break you,
let them know our sweat will always be easier to trickle than our blood,
Palestinian woman,
let you shake your hips
remind them of your flesh,
and how mortal it is,
they might have forgotten,
Believe me, only I know the difference between sweat drop and tear,
I see you
Dancing with wet cheeks, but smiling,
Still smiling,
you Arabian Queen
I can feel you breaking,
Remember only I know the difference between shake and tremble,
I promise they think you’re dancing,
But I see you crave life,
..And I wish I knew how to do it like you,
Laugh,
when they tell you our guerrilla fighting men got them thinking we were apes,
they don’t know this is as human as anyone could get,
We fight, because we crave life,
Can you ever crave life,
Like 4 Palestinian children,
Found starving,
Have been holding on to familiar corpses for days,
Cuz only in our deserts does a mother’s flesh freeze,
Crave life,
Like Molotov bombs,
Let that final blaze shine when you break and go.
Look around,
See men strap bombs to their chest as if its Palestine’s life-vest.
Stand as strong as these millennium old olive tree in your back yard,
Prove them wrong
to think ages of hardship can uproot you from your land,
When they point their guns at you
Will you take out your slingshot,
No, dont kneel down
not even to pick up rocks,
see, we are in no need of them
Take Stars of David,
Kiss your pain into that ancient peace sign,
And send it over,
Maybe it’ll hit them…
that this was never what their king had taught them,
Before they pull the trigger,
Will you take your most daring dream,
Pull the elastic of your slingshot far far back,
Aim at the sky’s abdomen,
cross fingers, hope hate does not shoot it down
then just…let go,
Will you watch your mother launch prayers into heaven like homemade rockets,
You hope they don’t shoot them down,
You know this is everything she has to defend herself with
but she
she prays they don’t shoot you down,
You are everything she has left,
Will you take your tongue for a rubber band…
Slingshoot Quran before you fall and hit ground,
Let them hear God speaking in poetry,
One day I will swear to them you are human,
But I don’t know if they’ll even believe me,
Please just continue believing
Believe in life,
Never stop slingshooting
peace.
