Let’s get one thing straight. I’m the decider.
You elected me to protect the homeland.
I won’t let you down if you just let me decide
What is best. I am the decider.
Picture a woman at work in a flag factory
remnants of red, green, and black fabric
unfurl as islands, torn heartlands at her feet.
Picture a Palestinian woman: stitching up the palm
The bus driver stops to pick plums
from an abandoned late summer garden,
the pale blue carrier bags pulled from his bed
where he sleeps underneath the bus.
All night we watch movies,
drink beer in the dark, cross borders
Let's see
if the burning
outlasts the candle.
By an invisible rope
I am hanged
from the clouds.
Egg, tadpole, frog—
then what the frog becomes.