Small Flames of Words

Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it.
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

excerpts from Practicing Loving Kindness
by Lisa Suhair Majaj

Bless the maniac
barreling down the one-way street
the wrong way,
who shakes his fist when I honk.
May he live long enough
to take driving lessons...

Bless the politicians
who both give and receive
bribes and favors.
Bless the constituents
seeking personal gain,
the thieves, the liars, the sharks.
And bless the fools
who make corruption easy.
May they be spared
both wealth and penury.

Bless the soldiers guarding checkpoints
where women labor and give birth
in the dirt. Bless the settlers
swinging clubs into teenager's faces,
the boys shooting boys with bullets
aimed to kill, the men driving bulldozers
that flatten lives to rubble.
May they wake from the dream of power,
drenched in the cold sweat
of understanding. May they learn
the body's frailty, the immensity of the soul...

Bless poetry books that cross oceans
in battered envelopes,
bearing small flames of words.

read the complete poem here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What She Said
by Lisa Suhair Majaj

"They don't have snow days in Palestine,
they have military invasion days."
--International Solidarity Movement activists,
describing the children's lives under Occupation.

She said, go play outside,
but don't throw balls near the soldiers.
When a jeep goes past
keep your eyes on the ground.
And don't pick up stones,
not even for hopscotch. She said,
don't bother the neighbors;
their son was arrested last night.
Hang the laundry, make the beds,
scrub that graffiti off the walls
before the soldiers see it. She said,
there's no money; if your shoes
are too tight, cut the toes off...

read the rest here

Tara has the Poetry Friday round-up today.