It’s a heart beating in the palm of the world’s hands—bleeding We’ve watched revolutions through TV screens We've tried it on busy streets The world holds a—dying—heart in its palms This bloody organ gushing is of Eastern Barbarism Gushing — wait hold on just a little longer! O! You have known of Eastern heat Jerusalem fuels—cut off—your churches American churchgoing coins roll over like bombs What would your—blue-eyed—Jesus say? Brown boys throwing rocks–bombs CONFLICT IN THE EAST (funded by the west) Do not fear We have safety here in suburbia Can an open-air prison be a suburbia too? Squeeze out the last of life in the Eastern Heart, won’t you? Do that for us will you? Thank You for your contribution! Wash out your eyes with Jerusalem’s holy water; you can drink From the tap that runs freely, why don’t you Wash out the world's bloody palms too? A people (brown) brought to the brink
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I was on a walk one day, contemplating what it means to be Muslim (invisibly) and Arab in America. Charged glances at my covered mother. Guantanamo Bay. Freedom of Speech (some exclusions may apply). Rather barbaric isn’t it? I saw surveillance and silence holding hands while walking towards me. My Arabic necklace. Oh, don’t worry it only says Purity. Maybe I should not. Must be the animal in me. Is there an animal in all of us? What did they say? They are (human) animals! On my walk I see some young boys playing basketball. A man steps forth and stabs one of the boys 26 times. He dies. He looked about six. Oh, wait. It was only an animal. My bad. I wonder what his animal (mother) will think when she plates his food for dinner and her animal (boy) does not come home to eat. That reminds me, 45 animal bloodlines have been demolished. 45 extinct animal species, scientists wake up!
MiC Contributor Safa Hijazi can be reached at safh@umich.edu.