Suheir Hammad

All holy history banned
Unwritten books predicted the future; projected the past
But my head unwraps around on what appears limitless

Men created violence
Who's son shall it be?
Which male will parish a new day?
Our boys' deaths galvanized
We cherish corpses

We mourn women, complicated
Bitches get beat daily, profits made, prophets ignored
Worn and tooth and amo, salted, lemon childhoods
All colors run, none of us solid
Don't look for shadow behind me
I carry it within

I live cycles of light and darkness
Rhythm is half silence, I see now
I never was one or the other
Sickness, health, tender, violence
I think now I never was pure

Before form I was storm
Blind, ignorant, still am
Humanity contracted itself blind, malignant
I never was pure

Girl spoiled before ripen
Language can't math me
I experience exponentially
Everything is everything

One woman looses fifteen
Maybe twenty members of her family
One woman looses six
One woman looses her head
One woman searches rubble
One woman feeds on trash
One woman shoots her face
One woman shoots her husband
One woman traps herself
One woman gives birth to a baby
One woman gives birth to borders
One woman no longer believes love will ever find her
One woman never did

Where do refugees' hearts go?
Broken, dissed, placed where they are not from
Don't want to be missed
Faced with absence

We mourn each one
Or we mean nothing at all
My spine curves spiral
Precipice running to and from human beings
Clustered bombs left behind
Defacto land mines
A smoldering grief

Harvest, contaminated tobacco
Harvest bombs
Harvest baby teeth
Harvest palms, smoke
Harvest witness
Smoke resolution
Smoke salvation
Smoke redemption
Smoke breath
Do not fear what has blown up

If you must
Fear the un-exploded.