Winter 2010 Poetry Contest Honorable Mention

I lay supine on Wilshire and Veteran

subtle ground cracks tickle spaces

where my skin collides with concrete

gaze skywards beyond bruatal timbre of recreated blasts

I hear you utter

I can’t marry you because you’re not Jewish

From Westbank to Westwood

2pm on a Saturday

middle of the street

my head on foreign legs

stacks of bodies occupy tire-marked roadway

this is the die-in

demise of silence

my skull caresses asphalt

black dirt on red hair

a melody of two thousand heart beats

rhythm to your little song

no girlfriend of mine will support Palestine

red white green and black insignia of aspiration for harmony

you slip in and out of my consciousness

I’ve never stared at the sky while laying in middle of the street

Lost Angels

later I rise from concrete

plant feet in cement terrain

ear memory of you declare

even though you voted for Obama you can still be my girlfriend

you place index fingers in ear drums

as our hymns form sound paths through urban walkways

from the river to the sea Palestine will be free

We march

intone the enflamed chants of a people

who burn their vocal cords for peace

on the corner of Veteran loud speakers detonate sound bombs

genocidal anthem of Gaza

vicious reverberations shake the ground

I rehear you whisper

how could you support the enemy?

i would leave UCLA and take up arms in Tel Aviv in a heart beat

the hum of pseudo explosions reside

two children entertain crowd with polyrhythmic hand slaps

i unshake the memory

yesterday you say it’s a shame i’m so liberal

an indignity i went to Cal

in one more redundant insult of romantic hatred

you call it a disgrace i come from Berkeley

a land where each inhabitant is so radical

they incapacitate themselves to think critically

if only you had listened to me say

i spend more time in temples than churches

how graceful to produce a bireligious child

i adore your Faith

still you beg i come over

tickle your flesh with my Lusotongue

flesh knows no politics

polar opposites

swear you unwish to reconcile our differences

crave to combine our mouths together

outside a memory of your orison for we

to dazzle the body with colorful friendship

this procession incantates miles down city blocks

a plea for peace

my voice ripples sound waves

floats subtitles to you

one final attempt to profess

you never hear me speak

I won’t marry you since you’re not Christian

shame you’re so conservative

I defriend you for fighting for your country