Fragments from a Sudden Crescendo
For Jerusalem, Palestine
At the Gate of Mercy
they are firing tear gas,
they have pushed us back
to re-envision
landscape with an architecture
of return. We gather
our stones, have
been told to wait,
they have pushed us
back with tear gas stun grenades.
Stadium seating, torpor
of eyes trained on us, dispatches
filed in guileless
verbs. Of Mercy singed
and defiant, we remain,
preparing our breakfast
as they fire tear gas stun grenades live ammunition.
Gates crenelated, sky widening,
sultans stir in their sleep,
offer archways to lift nightmares
from their brows. Museumed graves
intone a call to prayer
for the living. We perform our ablutions
in tear gas
our limbs stun
our hearts grenaded
our wounds live
freedom ammunition.
***
Photograph of Lena Khalaf Tuffaha by Naseem Tuffaha.
