War Machines Dress Up as Drag Queens

after Audre Lorde

There are many roots.

War machines are coin-operated arcade games,

and your penny sprays and juvenile plays

are just as greedy as a bulldozer's mouth

chewing life into debris for me to dish-wash and make poetry of.

War machines wear lipstick, carry bedazzled purses, and wave

hellohowareyou?

vogue on said debris / pink faucets. If you ignore the rubble,

this is a haven––its earth is flesh, brown and uncounted.

War machines are American-made, and they are never thirsty / rivers in their throats.

American water is brown and dirtied and children famished,

cracked, caged in cages, / in uneducated education.

Surf their boats in drought. Their knuckles stiff, cold is this verse.

I sit here wondering:

Which me will survive bulldozers undoing God?

Which me will soak their hands in these wells?

Which me will console the dead's loved ones with prevention, not

mourning,

bottle our Jordan River to smack American thirst,

for greed and grief.

Water stolen or neglected.

Which me will survive all these liberations?

-Mohammed El-Kurd

Taken from 'Rifqa' by Mohammed El-Kurd, published by Haymarket Books, 2021

Under this rubble

Under this rubble

It's dark and deafening, but loud and clear

Humanity can wait for blood show to air,

To silently witness me linger in fear

Under this rubble

Hunger is my loyal companion

But I picture an ice cream truck

When the sirens of medics roar through

When they blast a nearby neighborhood

I imagine skyscrapers being raised

And when from afar I hear a parent cry

I imagine it as a bedtime lullaby

Under this rubble

I lie as the oppressor with my broken bones

They threw rockets so I launched stones

Fully armed are they for a peaceful invasion

As we plot evil sipping murky water

With hunger, aches, illness and amputation

We are raising an empire of evil intention

Whose first goal is to pity the world outside

Where hypocrisy and deceit abundantly reside

I can see clearer under this rubble

The boastful promises of friendship

The woeful tears of companionship

All but a display of futile solidarity

A proof of self-rightousness delivered by charity

Your money and bread will not suffice

Till words become actions to ensure my rise

For under this rubble the clock ticks slow

I live on to testify humanity's demise

-Mehreen Yawar

Mohammed El-Kurd is an internationally touring and award-winning poet, writer, journalist, and organizer from Jerusalem, occupied Palestine. In 2021, He was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine. He is best known for his role as a co-founder of the #SaveSheikhJarrah movement. His work has been featured in numerous international outlets and he has appeared repeatedly as a commentator on major TV networks. Currently, El-Kurd serves as the first-ever Palestine Correspondent for The Nation. His first published essay in this role, "A Night with Palestine's Defenders of the Mountain," was shortlisted for the 2022 One World Media Print Award. RIFQA, his debut collection of poetry, was published by Haymarket Books in October 2021 was later released in Italian by Fandango Libre. RIFQA was named “a masterpiece” by The New Arab and a “remarkable debut” by the Los Angeles Review of Books, it was one of Middle East Eye’s "Best Books of 2021" and was shortlisted for the 2022 Forward Prize for "Best First Collection." El-Kurd holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College (CUNY) and a BFA in Writing from Atlanta’s Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Arab American Civil Council’s “Truth in Media” Award (2022), as well as the Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation (2023). He is currently a Civic Media Fellow at the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. El-Kurd has lectured and performed around the world including as the keynote for the 18th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Princeton University, at the Internazionale literary festival in Ferrara, Italy, and most recently at Adelaide Writers’ Week in Australia.

Taken from Mohammed El-Kurd's website. Follow him at https://www.mohammedelkurd.com

I am Mehreen Yawar, born and raised in Pakistan. Many a times at challenging phases in life, I have resorted to poetry not just to word my thoughts but to make sure it drives other's passion as well. Wishing to do more for Palestinians, writing something for them is the least I could do.

Mohammed El-Kurd & Mehreen Yahwa

Dunia Abu Mohsen & Judith Morrison

Mariam from Gaza