Home is a circle in the sand

I stand in a circle of rocks

Rocks that were gifted to me by my father’s hands

I stand alone

I suffocate

I erase

My feet are bare from walking on this dying land

remember when we used to care

home is just a circle in the sand

Stand on

Ocean sand or sea sand or river rocks

follow your big toe

decide if you want to connect the edges of your shape

Leave a circle open

the water will wash it anyway don’t get attached, be brave, be alone

move on

How many rocks does it take to build a wall

A separation

An extension

How many hands?

Naming a cement wall over and over again

No one is able to swallow one another’s definitions

Is it a wall?

Is it a fence?

Try it on your tongue with me

separation fence - security fence - apartheid fence

separation wall - security wall - apartheid wall

separation fence - security fence - apartheid fence

separation wall - security wall - apartheid wall

separation fence - security fence - apartheid fence

separation wall - security wall - apartheid wall

separation fence - security fence - apartheid fence

separation wall - security wall - apartheid wall

Which sounded the most correct to you?

do you think it matters?

It costs $260 million dollars per year to maintain the wall israel has built

How much money have you donated to the cause

Yes your taxes count

and your taxes count

and my taxes count and my hands count and my and my and

my and my and my

Your silence counts the most.

tell me one thing that happened in Palestine in the last month

do you know about the hunger strike

did you hear who won?

did you read a headline about it in the morning briefing of the nytimes

I did too who is ashamed of whom?

I miss you

send word

tell me some life you’ve been living

I don’t remember anymore which rock came from where

there was Alaska in this circle

there was British Columbia in this circle

there was Nepal in this circle

there were my father’s memories in this circle

lakes and rivers and mountains in this circle

there were my father’s hands in this circle

there was a gift to be remembered from a piece of life my father lived without

and the rock the rock the rock the rock the rock the rock the rock the rock

the rock carries his redemption with the land, the same land the same land the

same land the same land the same land the same land the same land the same

the same land my father still wants to defend from people who live on the

other side of the same land the same land the same land the same land the

same land the same land the same land the same land the same land the same

land the same land the same land the same land the same land the same

Do you have a fence around your house

A wall marking the borders of your yard

A gate to enter the premises

How many doors

locks

alarms

Is it your home?

Home

home

do you remember the kindergarten teacher that taught you to split the last

crayon into three because two other hands wanted to color the ocean in red

did you ever think of building a wall around your crayon, thinking it was yours

to protect to defend to arm to control to lock to occupy to destroy.

I want to find the reason for our hate

the root of its beginning

it takes half of the amount of time you’ve been with someone to

recover from the breakup

How long will it take us to recover from the hate we breathe into one another

How many walls will we break

Dig from the ground

How many borders will we have to take back, retrace

Erase

When it rains in Jerusalem it rains on Palestine and israel at the same exact

time, the shadow of the cloud doesn’t divide the wall on the ground, it casts

the same light.

I’m afraid someone is studying how to build walls that can divide parts of the

earth

from

the sun

A single light source can never create two separate shadows

The sun is the only light source we’ve got, meaning my

shadow touches yours all the time.

Hide in the dark?

I tried that a million times

Communal suicide for the sake of light

Maybe for silence

Maybe for night.

What is the first step

Help me find the first step

Want to die trying to collapse searching

Help

Step step step step step step step step step step step step step step step step

step step step step step step step

step step

I want to set in motion something you can take home tonight

I want to be able to tell you what to

do without dominating you I want to figure this out and give you directions

I think it starts with the amount of locks we need to lock before feeling secure

at night

How did that start?

That fear

That overwhelming feeling of protection

dance

dance dance

dance dance dance

dance

in-front of gates, under the ground, before my eyes

dance to be remembered as someone who tried

to change, to love, to live, to give, to forgive

dance with me, leave your door un-shut and your window broken

Stop asking people where they are from, expecting to hear a place that is

named according to the lines that divide it from the rest of the world

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\\\\\ Ask them where they are from in the universe

These days I feel like I’m from the rocks

the rocks that get washed by water, kissed by the sun, glow with the

moonlight,

the rocks that survived

Strip a wall down

Maybe if you can see me through the wall of my house

You won’t be afraid of my womin skin

nipples are just nipples

we all have them

why do mine need to be covered and yours are allowed exposure

who makes these rules we follow so effortlessly

Hiding behind white walls with governmental names

My body will never be yours

The one line in the sand I propose is that no

body will ever have control over another body

Vigilant in our screams

We celebrate birth dates of countries with light shows that sound like bombs

and trigger everyone who once had to hide in order to save their lives

Let’s stop hiding under property names thinking we were saved

We all have body parts that can touch the sand

I want to understand my being bounded

A bounded being

Why do you need your belongings to be yours alone

What does that feeling of ownership give you

take away

From you

Tell me, what do you see when you look in the

mirror

why do you need to create a life that resembles you

Reveal

why not care for a life that is already here

blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood

it’s all just red,

the same red the same red the same red the same red the same

red the same red the same red the same red the same red the same red the

same

I told her that if we would eventually adopt kids I might think of coming back to

the same land.

She said that if I keep making work about the occupation I won’t have a place

to come back to

on the same land.

Will you have me universe?

Will you take me as I am.

Bounded by my knowledge

Privileged by my perception, translation

RESIST, PERSIST

words that bound me in

my comfort of thinking I’m taking

Action

i like you

i love you

i’m in love with you

i will always love you

i cant live without you

you are my everything

it’s us against the world

i need you next to me forever

i want us to become one

there is no me without you

you complete me

you gave me life

you are all i need

till death do us part

reciting promises that were bound for the expression of our love love love love

love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love

love is a word not a feeling

using language to explain feelings that are not meant for words

they are meant for exploration

not for explanation of broken promises we will never keep

Can you imagine whispering all of that to the world and not just to the person

who makes the bed when you leave for work first.

we spend most of our lives defining what is yours and what is mine

think about the possibility of overlapping time

What if nothing was guarding your heart

Open the cages and free the animals

Humanity is suffocating inside blind bubbles

destroying by maintaining, defending by killing

prioritizing skin color

skin organs

skin skin skin skin skin

we are all made from the same skin the same skin the same skin the same skin

the same skin the same skin the same skin the same skin the same skin the

same

I washed all the rocks before bringing them here today

what did you do today that felt significant

I wanted to end this piece with a promise but I cannot promise you anything.