Farrah Sarafa

Painting Palestine through Protest

We painted Manhattan PALESTINE this day. 

Green, Black, and Red— reflected interminably

off mirrored skyscrapers. Facets of  

Emerald, Onyx, and Ruby braided street wires 

into nutritious gyres that dynamize all. 

Lighting fire fractals of freedom from within,

those khaffiyeh belts, flags, and headbands of protest

inspire bystanders to accessorize

Better. Stronger.

We are all one: Sisters and Brothers

Bound by the Green of olive trees, zaatar leaves.

and jasmine laden irises of newborns  

from within Hebron, Gaza, Jenin— 

Palestinians cry shades of labradorite.

Tears imbued with iridescence flash 

to grandpa jidoo’s large fig tree whose canopy

once concealed safe memories and hill stones—

retaliation for exhuming family bones.

Glimpses of the glistening seaside devolve 

into visions of blinding ash from buildings shot

down instantly, precisely dissolved 

 into remnants of a much milder dust bowl.

Estranged by the cloaked colonizers in Black, 

cadavers ferment decrepitly from Gaza…

Cold stone onyx pupils narrate pain,

 stories lost with rain refueled by intifada.

Protest tenderizes outlook and sympathies.

Ruby Red fires hint muhammarra and blood

Hearts sizzle, torpedo, and eclipse

like pomegranates whose chambers hold truth in bud. 

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Farrah Sarafa is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Pace University and Editor in Chief of Fractyll Magazine. She has been publishing poetry since 2001 in publications such as the Palestinian Chronicle, Ascent Aspirations, Litchfield Review, Diagram, Avatar, Tablets, and many more. She won 2nd place in the Marjorie Rappaport Poetry Competition and Chistell Writing Competitions. She also obtained her Master's at Columbia University under the tutelage of Edward Said.