C SEE SEA SI

Am I being arrested

or

am I being detained?

I know that legally

they are different

but

they still function and feel

the same.

A naked look in the eyes

would have let me know

that you acknowledged my being

No need to wave.

No need to stop me

to have a conversation

because you simply want to talk.

There is no need.

It’s all about the

images

never before- not now

not now just like before.

There are many things

in the trees

most of all

there is the knowledge

that goes beyond humanity.

- Flasco

A leaf in my hand

I do not want to be

immortal because I would

only be a statue

that would slow down

the infinite paths

of an inhale-

of an exhale.

Coming to a birth

and then

going to a funeral

the past was recited

to create in the

unstable present.

My heart feels

too much to learn

what they are teaching….

“You’re lying.

  You have no heart.

  I took it

  and that

  is certain.”

                     - Flasco

Canto

I wrote while you were alive

while you were living.

and now-

I’d rather have you

- rhemhi, (Hermosillo, Sonora)

Corazón

What am I doing here?

I want to go home.

“This is your home.”

Pétalos

“This is it. This is the big one…

  change-transformation.

  We have to vote.

  This only comes once every now and then.”

What is it this time?

“We get to vote for a new warden

  and for a new color for the walls

  of our home.”

  Our home!!! We’re in prison.

  What are you talking about

  It doesn’t work that way.

  I’m not trying to vote for

  whether we should or shouldn’t

  change the color of the prison’s

  walls to make it look nicer,

  different, or make it seem

  more comfortable. It will

  continue to be a prison,

  that will not change.

  I want out. I want this place

  to burn.

“But the last time we voted

 we got new beds and more

 choices for daily entertainment-

 it’s not a perfect system

 you know that….

 So you have to vote

 you can’t just not vote becau…..”

W: Everybody back to your cells-

      Let’s go

      Hurry up-move it.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Alright. See you tomorrow.

Ode to Authorized Individuals

     criticize god

     criticized government  

     criticized science  

     criticize laws but do not criticize my product.

     It will be in the spatial-cyber market soon……

     and that is a war that you do not want to fight-

     trust me.

             -ToM saNNo deco SAnto

Make it Back

Your heart is worth more

than what I gave you

I had no right

to touch and hold your heart

if I knew

that I could not give

what was needed.

Did I know?

No. I didn’t.

And-now

that I see-

Yes. I did.

It was not your war-

it never was-

and-yet

you wanted to be there.

Your heart is worth more

than what I gave you

Plumas

Let me listen to you

so that an image will dissolve into itself.

I know….I know…….your almost there.

On a feather that was made from the bark

of a Sycamore tree, there was a song:

(they are cutting us)

 children’s wings

are cut and used as fabric

to dress a civilized society

unalterable phases raise knowing eyes

foresighted by the recited breaths of a mother:

“my children will have to live their own thoughts..

 their own ways

 dying for better days.”

In chronological order she places social disorders.

The agricultural becomes false capital when the cerebral follows the leader-

day dreaming of being unseen for fear

that they will be accused of exposing those who knew.

Moment-

moments-

movement-

movements diffract images that conceal

fact from feeling

significance from existence

and

truth from resistance.

Eat.

Eat and taste

you are almost there.

A story for the day and sometimes the night…….

I felt myself spinning

spinning

as if I was a story

that was being formed...........

(For a friend)

 They don’t know

how trees live

 they don’t know

how they die

they only know

how they fall-

they cut them down…….

can you see the holes in the sky?

                               - Traveling Bench

Fabricating Evidence

 “Yes.
  I remember those days.
  Fear ruled and those who challenged, and questioned 
  the fear and the imposed certainty
  were deemed terrorists-subversives….threats, crazy….
  Their identities were constructed to be perceived 
  as dangerous and irrational.
  I fear that I am no longer reminiscing.
  Today it is all too familiar.”

        - Salem McCarthy, (2003)

An infant is happy at a funeral…..

for the most part

that is what official sources reveal.

Put your head down

and wait for the mother’s blessing

undressing multi-dimensional forms of colonization

of the psyche.

 You were told that the past and the future

were not capable of sharing the same space

without annihilating the present

the motion of thought does not recede

you carry it with you- it is uncomfortable

but you keep going

it is not enough to make you stop

and change your path.

Keep your head down

if you want to rely on the father’s blessing-

I’m not that hopeful

all I can do now is suggest that you keep your eyes

on what was undressed.

They have orders to kill

don’t forget-

What did you expect?

They have orders to kill-

you almost got lost in the assemblages

that form the new heart of a threat.

-rhemhi

SAHUARO and the OWL

There is a language

and

it holds an image of being alive-

it doesn’t make a sound

because it is truly dead.

Without God what do you know?

Today God is the efficient

manipulation of perception…..

Science has been used to uphold religion

and religion reveals to be itself

a mere semblance of its essence.

The shadows have almost become invisible

but

when I look to where the sahuaro is

my mind, body, and essence

constantly struggle next to the owl

and

tear themselves apart to liberate themselves

from two languages that were inherited

through violence.

        -americanus RARAAVIS

Solo son memorias

A dead

poet

is the best poet.

Dead poets are the best poets

because they live in performance…..

They are the ones that are remembered

while the living are forgotten-

                                never heard

                                       or

                                   simply

                                never questioned.

Death brings their being into a well defined and secure life

that is always changing without transforming.

 All praises be for the entertainer:

                                           utterance of uncertainty

who are you?

                                         “memory is lost

                                           when all money is found”

we are high when we look into eyes

and don’t see ourselves……

leave it on the window

everything will live…

and as I walk by

it will take me in

                                        “broken minds

                                          fall with the time..

                                          as the present time

                                          will know its life”

I will never be a part of you

and-this…..

I did not know was how I found you.

    - Amerigu Eskivares, (Israel)

Borrower's Name

 U: Take me out of doubt.

 T: I can’t.

    It’s locked from my side.

    Pass me the key.

  “Keep in mind Mr. Investigator”

 Paralyzed minds move their bodies-slowly climbing-

truly

falling

down

a white hole they chase green rabbits

where they remember not knowing the reason

why

liberators with suits that mimicked independence

carried faces that openly confessed to having no knowledge of massacres

were heavily guarded while on tour around the green zone in Iraq.

A mom pushes her children in a shopping cart

and a man passes…..

carrying a case of beer.

They pass each other

look

and

acknowledge the present.

An atomic plague spread

as the official line denied the existence of atomic radiation-

no one noticed

words are direct

only when they don’t make sense of what is said

 poetry and writing

must be absolutely free

with no guilt of revealing and expressing.

 It is alive and at times dead.

“So….

I must confess Mr. Investigator

that is my story.

It is not the only one- after all…..

but it is mine.”

1 month, 6, 9, 12, 24 months….3 and 4 years

…..then they handed me an element that seemed to be a stone in fluid form and said:

  “if philosophers only knew how to mine the gray matter...the electric essence”

Today I had a dream.

I dreamt that for the first time I saw everything for what it was.

I saw familiar faces. I knew exactly where I was and the pain in my chest was no longer unknown.

My brother was there watching me, but he couldn’t reach out to help me

because he knew that I had to do this on my own.

“What is: this? What do you mean by: this? What did you have to do?”

I’m not sure.

The faces that were there said, “This is the way to break somebody down.”

They said that the body would seem fine but that after a while

the mind would weaken-breakdown and the person would fall asleep

but still function as if they were awake.

The mind will always feel like sleeping and be careless and unresponsive

to the past, present, future….simulated...manipulated…..un...alter...able….

The game for my breakdown began.

I saw the palpitation of the soul

its circuitry was unknown to me

and you, yes, you, attempted to grasp and suffocate it with your desperate hands.

I told you to

let it go-

let it go astray to where it came from

there is no need to control it

let it go.

 You held on as my eyes opened and I heard these last words

before the dream was suffocated:

I know that I hurt you deeply

and I know that I let you down

if I say that I love you

know that it is not because

I lost something that I have found

What do you remember?

symptoms remain

the man walking up the hill with food

the students walking on the sidewalk

the cars on the street following the buses

the people exiting the buses

lights changing

the night lights refusing sunset

the old woman sitting

watching-knowing what it is like to turn the head

and feel the strain of the neck give sight to her eyes.

It is like truth.

It is truth..

like overhearing a conversation

that was meant for your absence.

the people in the buses

going to work

coming to work.

Segregated schools create segregated minds

segregated minds create segregated times

segregated times manifest segregated lives

segregated lives maintain segregated schools

segregated schools harvest educated fools

educated fools create the present world.

The kids- the kids walking on the sidewalk…

being kids on the sidewalk

walking many ways

perceiving the present day

listening to

what is

and

what is said.

Those that wait upon the Lord….

Somewhere between my eyes

I’ll come to realize

that I’ve been dying…..

falling deep

into the deepest secrets

beyond the walls

living only to eat and sleep

I imagine a sun setting on this wall

as my ashes turn into water

The Audience

when imaginations are stolen and replaced

with a static image of life and of being……

life fuels a society of war

torture facilities have shut down

but the function continues to be in motion.

What can I say

the past stories were lost for victory.

I was born in a womb that creates to consume

work-

work to survive

work to provide

work to stay alive

Did you hear that?

I will grow old as eternity forgets

that it was always young walking in the desert

like others did…

today it took me 42 seconds

to put my pants on…..

tomorrow it will probably take me longer.

“I know.”

Some Body’s Mind

Yesterday I saw a young man dragged into the room across from me as I was taken out for corrective therapy. He looked at me. I recognized him, and I knew, viscerally, that he was saying good bye. Today he is not there. The room is bare and sanitized, there is no trace that reveals that anyone was ever in that room. There is only my memory and their memory and maybe your memory too. He was a young man from Israel that quit the IDF after serving for a few months. His reasons were never shared with me, but his poetry was:

                                                           Death moves freely

                                                           while life is calculated.

                                                           I will show you how the

                                                           twisted mind

                                                           will find its way.

                                                          -How?

                                                           Through the healing song

                                                           its essence is similar

                                                           to this……………

Palestine

do you see your sunsets?

 Do you hear the sound of the grass

reaching out to the other side of the wall?

 Do you hear the sound of your memories

memories that have become the unexpressed sadness

of a raped and stolen home?

Palestine

I am not America nor Israel

I am you

I am the dead seeds at the checkpoints

I am the life that is taken from children

Palestine

I am sorry

I am sorry for cowardly silencing my voice

I will share my mouth with your voice

The moth has become camouflaged

on the glass window for everyone to see

                                   for our hearts and minds

to feel and understand the shame and hate

that gives them life.

Palestine refuses the death of voice

                            the death of resistance

                            the death of the ungrown tree

Breathe:

            Suheir Hammad

 Breathe:

            Mahmoud Darwish

 Breathe:

            Sami Al-Qasim

 Breathe:

             People

Do not speak of Israel………

It is sacred

Speak of Palestine-

It is there

naked

crucified

and

soon will become sacred

breathe:

            children

 breathe:

            women

 breathe:

            men

 breathe:

           people

our hearts have screamed with love and resistance to the world

    “our being will not be taken!!!!!”

Some were shot below the knee

and some were shot in the chest and then died…….

The scream was heard in the womb

of tomorrow’s generations…..

I see no flags between Israel and Palestine

there are only the colors that seem to paint

a world in the color of well-meaning flags.

 I see no flags between Palestine and Israel

I see being

Israeli soldier putting down her gun

                       putting down his gun

to shoot words of wisdom guided by love

to bring death to the thought that whispers

life into Israel’s justification

shooting to bring death to the life of Israel’s occupation

 I see woman

I see man

suicide bombers

hoping that in their explosions

the hate in their minds will sooth the pain in their hearts

I see mother

I see father

with no life…………

their lives taken by the death of their son

their lives taken by the death of their daughter-

their children

 taken by an explosion of hate

taken by an explosion of love

breathe:

            Rami Elhanan

 breathe:

            Ishay Rosen-Zvi

 breathe:

            Wafa Idris

 breathe:

            people

it is certain that nothing will change

it is certain that everything will change

it is certain because uncertainty is certain in tomorrow’s generations

tomorrow’s generations perpetually imagine and explore

tomorrow’s generations struggle and resist

and that is why tomorrow’s generations love, create, and live……they live-

breathe:

            truth

 breathe:

            resistance

 breathe:

            Bi’lin

 breathe:

            Ni’lin

 breathe:

            Abud

 breathe:

            Iraq Burin

 breathe:

            West Bank

 breathe:

            Gaza

 breathe………………..

8 arrive at A

Unquestioned voices resonate in my head

I listen to some of them for a while

maybe they might say and touch on something with substance.

Folding myself into history I unfold into the present

This is my culture but it doesn’t represent me

it asks for a reward every time oil is spun into golden weapons and societies

and then woven into an image of a prosperous future while it destroys flora and fauna

and contaminates air, water, space, bodies, and land.

I am American in the frame of the paper

crossing from checkpoint to checkpoint

at times my demeanor arouses a memory of the foreign-

of a necessary enemy.

All roads don’t lead to Rome

most of them will take you to the reservations, modern plantations,

torture sites, and military occupations

but then again-

where is it that you intend to go?

Didn’t this moment happened before?

Not to us- of course…….

But it did happen

Dreams don’t come true

unless they are invented by you

and I know this now-

more than ever…..

being here in this place- in your dream.

The dreamer woke up and everything disappeared.

It all disappeared everything-

especially the eyes.

“Your eyes should have remained”

They didn’t.

All that remained was a sound and a feeling.

While pyramids and cities crumble and dry out for lack of understanding ……

while my body dissolves to the rhythm of a chaotic expansion-

I will not die…….but culture and ideology will.

While a voice is heard- your voice

I will not die.

“We will begin to record.

Are you ready now?”

American ODE-dio

Pieces of air betray the words…..

there were a few witnesses, but they are all

in here

with me-

now.

What does it feel like to kill someone?-

is it something that does not move you

like an American drone strike?

or

is it like the emotion of cold truth:

they are dead

you are alive 

Tell me.

Have you heard the story of the believing scientist?

“No.

What did they believe in?”

They believed in the creation of something new that came about from the material and ideas that already exist.

Confessions of moments and experiences

that were not supposed to exist

came to life when you told me

that you were in love with me.

First of all, you’ll be observed but not in the way you think

every detail marks your print, but you don’t interpret them

movement came before the snow Snowden fled to let you know

how many times you breathe per minute interrupt the way you think

Causing your emotions to change is not a phase feel it

This is your world. How is your world?

Talk your shit

Fight your wars

Misinformed here at home

Flesh torn apart by explosions

 it’s all justified with distortions

Generals beg with the left hand while they kill in foreign lands with the right hand

Thousands of bullets, chemicals, and frequencies into bodies are the actions of worldly improvements…..

They said she was bright kid

They said he was a bright kid

They said she was so talented

They said he was so talented

Eyes only see what they are told that’s why open wounds never close

Causing your emotions to change

Is not a phase feel it

How is your world? This is your world

I’m trying to find a way

I’m trying to grasp my mind

listen -

don’t take your life

Children will always bear witness to reality

they will be the ones that will tear violence apart

death is eager for your breath

every move you make creates another end

contact-disconnect sometimes they feel the same

believe in a God- don’t believe in a God.

What does it mean when you kill for your God- when you kill for your thought?

I’m just trying to get out, but…… I move deeper into it

flesh separates from the moon and the wound is resurrected on the earth

What do you believe?

That they should bleed?- That I should bleed?

don’t take their life

when you’re trying to find a way

when you’re trying to secure your mind

listen-

don’t take your life

all that I’m trying to say is that I love you

and that I will miss you when you’re gone

“Is that all for today?”

I don’t know- you tell me.

I’m just trying to find a way

I’m trying to grasp my mind while I hold on to my heart