“If we opened me up, we'd find beaches” is the next line she says in her self-portrait-documentary. Same, Agnès, same. I am on one now, celebrating my new brother-in-law and sister-in-law.
Some things:
“Look, there’s Tía! Tía, wait up!”
No children appear in the play.
“Explicit, open, and unashamed.”
If nobody is a civilian, nobody can be a victim.
“Kallarðu þetta jafnrétti?” (You call this equality?)
“The world conspires to make us blind to its own workings; our real work is to see the world again.”
Can I pull the land from me like a cork?
I leak all over brunch. My father never learned to swim.
I’ve already said too much.
Look, the marigolds are coming in. Look, the cuties
are watching Vice again. Gloss and soundbites.
They like to understand. They like to play devil’s advocate.
My father plays soccer. It’s so hot in Gaza.
No place for a child’s braid. Under
that hospital elevator. When this is over.
When this is over there is no over but quiet.
Coworkers will congratulate me on the ceasefire
and I will stretch my teeth into a country.
As though I don’t take Al Jazeera to the bath.
As though I don’t pray in broken Arabic.
It’s okay. They like me. They like me in a museum.
They like me when I spit my father from my mouth.
There’s a whistle. There’s a missile fist-bumping the earth.
I draw a Pantene map on the shower curtain.
I break a Klonopin with my teeth and swim.
The newspaper says truce and C-Mart
is selling pomegranate seeds again. Dumb metaphor.
I’ve ruined the dinner party. I was given a life. Is it frivolous?
Sundays are tarot days. Tuesdays are for tacos.
There’s a leak in the bathroom and I get it fixed
in thirty minutes flat. All that spare water.
All those numbers on the side of the screen.
Here’s your math. Here’s your hot take.
That number isn’t a number.
That number is a first word, a nickname, a birthday song in June.
I shouldn’t have to tell you that. Here’s your testimony,
here’s your beach vacation. Imagine:
I stop running when I’m tired. Imagine:
There’s still the month of June. Tell me,
what op-ed will grant the dead their dying?
What editor? What red-line? What pocket?
What earth. What shake. What silence.
Field trip (not for me since I’m out of the country, but maybe for you?)
What: Brooklyn is Not a Sacrifice Zone, a live theater community-engaged performance
Where: Newtown Creek Nature Walk (Entry near 59 Paidge Ave. Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY)
When: Saturday Oct. 28th & Sunday October 29th at 5pm
Till next time,
ASK