From “We Live We Live” by Brandy Nalani McDougall

From "We Live We Live"
for Palestinian poet Reefat Alareer, with lines from his poems
by Brandy Nālani McDougall

  This morning                      after Israel's birds              of death

screeched down                  toward you            my children woke up
        on their own       in Honolulu        though it was still dark

     their breath           like soil                   there voices        like soil
 their kisses            like soil                 blinking when touched by rain

Israel kills poets. Israel kills journalists. Some were killed in bombings. Others gunned down by occupational forces. These are targeted incidents, but PR will call it an accident. The Israeli government is afraid that the world around them will learn the truth. That it’s hard to be a victim when you’re the one bombing hospitals, religious buildings, and schools.

Refaat Alareer was killed on December 6, 2023 during an airstrike that killed his brother, sister and four of her children.

To read the poem in full, visit Poets.org.