By: Nicole Newman (Washington D.C.)
Israeli soldiers tinker with armor
Adjust guns on hips
Too young to know what damage
A gun that size can do
They watch with scared hard eyes
In some, there is a youthful softness
Like young men in the states drafted
Before they know there are other options
And I wonder who decided who needs to be watched and who are the watchers
And maybe these soldiers like this service
Maybe duty and country are constructs
Only foreign to the descendants of former slaves
Maybe our service looks different
Maybe these soldiers like the power of being able to decide who come and goes
Who loves and lives and dies in an instance
The young girl dead from 5 bullets to the chest
Didn’t adjust
I watch Muslim woman both covered with a hijab and in skinny jeans and think there is something oddly beautiful about tradition with a modern twist
I wonder did her hijab come loose as her body hit the floor
Or was it wrapped so tightly it did not move
What moves here??
What is the currency?? Is it blood?? Is it nationalism? What is being held so tightly??
Land?
I have come to hear from living stones
Rocks that will cry out and yet there is something
Both holy and profane about this place
