American Identity Card

I composed the following poem in 2011, frustrated that America backed Israel's efforts to block the declaration of Palestinian statehood. The point of departure is a famous lament by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.


Inscribe that I’m American
With a treasury overfull of empty promises
I give borrowed money to your enemies
To buy the truncheons thwacking your knees
My silence highers a concrete wall between your eyes
and your uprooted trees
While bullets rip the flesh of destinies
And fiery ordnance whose solemn syllable decrees
Deceitful vows of vengeances