"it's that time of year again"
fidgeting with our masks
which year?
lungs now with growth rings
the winter of a million dead and no more ventilators?
the spring of choking in taksim square?
the summer of tear gas (any & all of 'em)?
the fall of the DAPL cough, 40,000lb of Rozol later?
for every thing
there is a season
so they say
and every year
my coughs
linger longer & longer
oh and look
you already forgot
about the wild fires
over and over and over the loud speaker
NO LOITERING
PLEASE DISPERSE
we are all of us at home
and I am now a woman
who peers out of curtains
with greying hairs
they installed the tower this week
after three more were shot
over and over and NO LOITERING
PLEASE DISPERSE
into the night
we are all of us at home
I am grateful
the one of us who was shot in april
where the tower now stands
has a room in back out of earshot
and curtains that peer into a garden
which is where women forget their grey hairs
over and over NO LOITERING
but this time no pleasance
DISPERSE DISPERSE DISPERSE DISPERSE
my father worked in Palestine in the 90s
i was too young to remember
my sister age two saw his face on the
television somewhere behind Arafat
and was afraid it meant he was trapped inside
the tv box forever
padraig o'tuama is an Irish poet leader
student of troubles
who does truth & reconciliation work
in Northern Ireland
he once said that
the most powerful
question
he ever asks
is a simple one --
"what do you want?"
my sister
very much
wanted to know
if Yasser Arafat likes apple sauce
and if her father
was trapped in a box forever
many children are still waiting for their answers
many children are never asked
many children are gone
and cannot answer.
