astomatous
By Victoria Reyes
for Mahmoud Khalil
itstartedoffanordinaryday. suddenly:accosted. handcuffed.kidnapped. withoutawarrant &with
holdingtheirnames, ICEagents tearyou fromyourdoctor wife,8monthspregnant, filmingtheordeal.
secretedtoa Louisianabunker, you’regivennopillow tolaydownyourhead, nocloak
tostaveoffthecold, missingthebirth ofyourchild. forwhat longingforaFreePalestine?
anendtogenocide? youareremindedofSyria. Werecall genocide &enslavement asU.S.origins. thereisnofreespeech—
only the rich have mouths.
Victoria Reyes (she/her) is a writer, poet, and scholar. She’s also the author of Global Borderlands: Fantasy, Violence, and Empire in Subic Bay Philippines and Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope. Her poetry has appeared in Feminist Formations, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, and Dissident Voice.
Photo credit: Henry Burrows via a Creative Commons license.
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