TO THE PROLES
When I said “I love you” I meant free Palestine.
When I said “the blockade is my boyfriend” I meant free Palestine.
You said “take this job and shove it” and I felt your proximity I heard free Palestine.
TO THE ENEMY
When I said “Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation” I meant free Palestine.
When I said “from the river to the sea” I meant Palestine will be free.
When I said “autumn of your reign” I meant free Palestine.
You said “vulnerable waterways” and I heard
______“Land: Wet’suwet’en method”
______“Sea: Ansar Allah” and yes this intervention is
______my boyfriend (see THE PROLES)
TO THE POETS
When I said “Homeric in character” I meant free Palestine.
When I said “moon at daybreak” when I said “ozone layer depletion” when
_____I said “my liver’s long 21st Century” I meant free Palestine.
You said “World Town” I cried for the martyred meaning free Palestine.
TO THE STATE
When I said “fuck the police” I meant fuck the police.
When I said “Vietnam to Sri Lanka” when I said “Thessaloniki to Tottenham”
_____when I said “Santiago to Sacramento” it
_____was our world against yours. I
said “fuck the police free Palestine” and I meant it.
TO THE INTELLECTUALS
When I said “rewild the land” when I said Nakba you heard “thine alabaster cities”
_____and for a moment you were Benjamin perched on the minaret.
When I said “Ma Nishtana” I meant no, this night is in fact like some of the others.
When I said “architect of sarcophagi” you said
_____say it again before you die I meant free Palestine.
TO THE PARTY
When I said “a wise brick once said to the window” you said shhh the NPC is
______speaking.
When I said “thermal shadow” you heard “rules-based order.”
You said “join the party” not “free them all” and I asked & you said “the rules-based
______order provides mechanisms for updating and amending rulesets” I said “the
______missiles have ghastly names precisely because they are missiles” I meant free
______Palestine.
TO THE REVOLUTIONARIES
When I say “the proles” I mean some are revolutionaries, some are not.
When I say “the poets” when I say “the intellectuals” I mean the same.
When I say “everything is at an end, give me your hand, so that we may begin again”
______when I say “grant that we may see each other” I mean you I mean those who
______want more than another paycheck another poem another politician calling
______for “peace.”
When you said “I smoked my last cigarette in Nazareth” when you said
______“expropriation of the expropriators” when you said “I sold my land and took
______up arms”
______I believed in you I heard your phrase
I mean to say there’s nothing left to say
yet it still needs to be said.
______I mean I said so many things
______it all meant nothing if it didn’t also mean
______From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Joni is a communist and a writer born and raised in Central Ohio. She lives in Oakland, California where she runs a weekly reading series with seven other poets. She has never been to Israel, but looks forward to visiting when it’s Palestine.