Your Egypt

[alna]

What I Will

I will not
dance to your war
drum. I will
not lend my soul nor
my bones to your war
drum. I will
not dance to your
beating. I know that beat.
It is lifeless. I know
intimately that skin
you are hitting. It
was alive once
hunted stolen
stretched. I will
not dance to your drummed
up war. I will not pop
spin beak for you. I
will not hate for you or
even hate you. I will
not kill for you. Especially
I will not die
for you. I will not mourn
the dead with murder nor
suicide. I will not side
with you nor dance to bombs
because everyone else is
dancing. Everyone can be
wrong. Life is a right not
collateral or casual. I
will not forget where
I come from. I
will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved
near and our chanting
will be dancing. Our
humming will be drumming. I
will not be played. I
will not lend my name
nor my rhythm to your
beat. I will dance
and resist and dance and
persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than
death. Your war drum ain't
louder than this breath.

Suheir Hammad

http://www.suheirhammad.com/

[alna]

Being Alive After You

This is how pearls are created
Through grit
Getting through
Through unease and tension so taut you think you will snap

This is how diamonds are formed
In the darkest
Deepest
Mined
Scraping bone and breaking skin
Until you reach a clump of earth to
Be cut and polished

I should be wearing long necklaces of jewels after this season of loss
I should be adorned in this dusk mourning

Instead I am looking for
Your kind face of knowing
Instead I feel naked
Lost and counting my dead as markers of where I have been

I pray for shine in stone
I pray for brilliance in clay
I am looking for the day I will
Not have to wear my pain so flashily
But muted and solid
Trace minerals of all that is no longer

[Winky]

:) Very nice Alna I will look at your link tomorrow