Turning Point
For Bisan Odwa
“I am 25 years old, I’ve lived my
whole life in the Gaza strip, and
I’ve never felt hope like now. Never.
I mean it’s magical feelings running
in my veins right now, in my head.”
—Bisan Owda, in response
to student protests
This is the turning point
Bisan and her newfelt hope
Magical feelings running in her veins
What a poet!
I wonder if we would have been friends
I left my ink well in a crime scene
A campus crawling with cops
She left her cameras in a war zone
Under the rubble of Rimal
We make do with the apps on our phones
This is the turning point
Chaos in the college
The unveiling of Hind Hall
On WKCR, the first tremors
In the voices of the students
Stuck in Pulitzer
Under threat of arrest
As police load their peers into vans
What bravery!
I hope it was none of my friends
My friends crochet blankets
In the living room
I hear their laughter between broadcasts
I think about spinning yarn(s)
And women and war
And the act of bearing witness
This is the turning point
The Volta
Where the poem shifts in tone
But I’m not sure I have a revolution in me
Must every poem end in comfort?
Do I deserve that?
Do you?
She does.
Bisan and her friends
From Yafa, Haifa, Akka, Majdal
She deserves to hear their laughter
From another room
This is the turning point
I am 22 years old
I’ve lived my whole life in America
And I’ve never felt fear like now
Never
A necessary, if inadequate trade—
Let us feel some of her fear
If it means she has hope
Let those magical feelings run
In her veins