PRAYER AFTER DEMOLITION
“I wish I could wake up one day and find that Gaza has sunk into the sea.”
— Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 1992
I am sick
with obsession
digging deeper
into the black of my pockets
where I thought I would carry the paper roads
& rivers back to us.
But the maps I was given, dear siblings,
don’t mark the rhythm of our dark bodies
against the rhythm of this sable land—no,
these double-dealing things abide by a different sight
disjointing land from the skin of our word, razing
the olive & willow & wild plum trees.
Oh, dear siblings,
these concrete maps wanna fill the moonful rooms in my eyes
with a harsh light, wanna draw me into evil,
I am learning, only travels in straight lines
dressing us ablaze in Myth. I hate
these cruel maps
refusing the dark that defines the light,
denying us & what they done & what they doing, still. I am so sorry
I took so long to learn
the black in pockets is you
&
I have always been a gill
& shovel
reaching out to you.
after al Araqib (2017), Al Zarnoug (2016), The Fillmore (1968),
el Chamizal (1964), Africville (1964), Chavez Ravine (1954) & Seneca Village (1857)
Alana de Hinojosa is a PhD Candidate in Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA. She lives in Fresno.
Photo by Matt Hardy from Pexels.