Hasheemah Afaneh
Military Occupations and Baton Rouge
Over coffee and cigarette smoke,
she says, “We just want to breathe,” so
take Jerusalem and give us
the beaches of Haifa
and open the gates
and let the fresh air of Acre
blow into Ramallah and let us breathe
the air that Eric Garner was denied.
Different air qualities. Same systems choking us.
I know of unspoken rules learned
under a military occupation across the Atlantic,
but a black man tells me in Baton Rouge,
“when the sun goes down, you go home”,
or the black man may find himself at the back of a police car,
or the black man may find himself in a prison cell,
or the black man may find himself not home.
“It happens more often than it doesn’t.”
Different rules. Same systems imprisoning us.
On the West Coast, I stand
at the edge near the water,
and I breathe in and I breathe out,
and I think Take Jerusalem and Take Baton Rouge,
but don’t take the lives that make Jerusalem,
the lives that make Baton Rouge.
she says, “We just want to breathe,” so
take Jerusalem and give us
the beaches of Haifa
and open the gates
and let the fresh air of Acre
blow into Ramallah and let us breathe
the air that Eric Garner was denied.
Different air qualities. Same systems choking us.
I know of unspoken rules learned
under a military occupation across the Atlantic,
but a black man tells me in Baton Rouge,
“when the sun goes down, you go home”,
or the black man may find himself at the back of a police car,
or the black man may find himself in a prison cell,
or the black man may find himself not home.
“It happens more often than it doesn’t.”
Different rules. Same systems imprisoning us.
On the West Coast, I stand
at the edge near the water,
and I breathe in and I breathe out,
and I think Take Jerusalem and Take Baton Rouge,
but don’t take the lives that make Jerusalem,
the lives that make Baton Rouge.
Biography
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Hasheemah Afaneh, MPH (she/her/hers) is a Palestinian-American writer and public health professional based in New Orleans. The themes her works center on are social justice, equity, identity, and day-to-day musings of the world. She has contributed to Sinking City Literary Magazine, Poets Reading the News, Shado Mag, This Week in Palestine, and others. Her poetry is forthcoming in December in Grlsquash Magazine and Caldera Magazine and in 580 Split Journal in spring 2020. Quality time for her is family time, laughs with friends, and reading. You can find more of her work on norestrictionsonwords.wordpress.com. She tweets @its_hashie.
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