A MATTER OF TIME
Gaza
Say one scalding summer,
you had 100 minutes
alone of electricity each day:
how would you use them?
Maybe you’d have
dinner by the LED,
or bring them to the sea,
shine figure 8s on the foam.
But what if the water
nauseates?
Bored at home,
would you let them go?
They’re about to come on.
Would you waste
what you’ve got for talk
of failing sewage pumps?
If you fall
asleep,
will they
be yours?
Would you play them
from your phone?
Draw them in the sand?
If a line, where and when?
The drones care.
Say the sea
takes them—
would that matter?
And if someone calls?
Will you answer?
—from Rattle #59, Spring 2018
Tribute to Immigrant Poets
__________
Annie Kantar: “This past summer, Gaza was cut off from all but 1-2 hours of electricity a day. As of publication, Gazans are allocated only 3-4 hours a day. This poem was born of a desire to articulate, in some small measure, the madness in that normalcy.”
