Rifqa

by Mohammed El-Kurd

Solidarity is a feeling and a doing. It is a series of choices we make with one another. It can only be felt. It cannot be contrived or manipulated. Solidarity is not just about our shared pain or struggle but also, most importantly, about our shared joy, visions, and dreams. It is an energetic force and a resounding love.

The freest people on earth are not controlled by hatred or fear but moved by love and truth.

This is why we dance: Because screaming isn’t free. Please tell me: Why is anger–even anger–a luxury to me?

A soldier as old as a leaf born yesterday pulls a trigger on a woman older than his heritage.

an anticipated empire on the ruins of another.

Here, we know two suns: earth’s friend and white phosphorus. Here, we know two things: death and the few breaths before it. What do you say to children for whom the Red Sea doesn’t part?

Some days I hear them carving their cities under my skin, and hope I don’t collapse.

I learned that poetry is planting a bomb in a garden—a masquerade. Language is not free.