RUBBLE/REBEL

iAM POETRY 2020

p. 20 RUBBLE/REBEL

I am the rebel

I am not a pawn in your game of empire

I am only The broken Shackles Of my people In Gaza

I am the rubble

I am not the caricature that moves on your diamond screens

I am only the home That you do not see as a home Unless you are the one living in it

I am the rubble

I am only Screaming at the top of my lungs Wide eyed Sun kissed hair Red spotted shirt Dotted with tears Clutching desperately unto loose sheets of paper

I am the rebel

I am only Imprisoned Fighting for the words Of my people

I am only The c u r v e s of my arabi[1] that I was never taught The nectar that pours from Tayta’s[2] mouth Onto paper

I am only Her words that live for centuries In those old story books That you won’t even let me hold

I am only the ashes of my home The dust of my dreams

I am only the destruction you have carved into my mother’s spine It engulfs her

she feeds me

Your rage is mechanical It turns the gears of your bulldozer

I am only the rubble That the cameras never get close enough to touch

I have stories Imprinted on my skin No matter how much I try to take the ink Off my body And write it onto the paper You tell me I am not worthy I am not human I am terrorist

p. 21

iAM POETRY 2020

iAM POETRY 2020

p. 22

I write hate I write evil

You are evil I am child I wish You saw me As I am A child Waiting For this world To hear my breath

I sigh from Inside the rubble And say

I am the rebel

My books Are an army

I will carve myself on to the countertops in Tayta’s kitchen I will etch my skin With tally marks Of the days you left us caged

I will look up and say ya Allah[3] I am here And they won’t write my story Keep me alive

I know that our stories will rebuild His creations And I know that my ashes Will scatter The world

p. 23

[1] The transliteration for the word “Arabic”; pronounced “‘Ah-rab-ee.” [2] The transliteration for the Arabic word meaning “grandmother”. [3] The meaning of the Arabic transliteration of “Ya Allah” is “Oh God”.

iAM POETRY 2020