Wedding in the time of genocide

Appeared in Muzzle Magazine, Fall 2024, issue 35.

Wedding in the time of genocide

By Khalil Sima'an

— “And we love life, if we find a way to it”,  Mahmoud Darwish

We celebrate life whenever we can,

ululate solemn palms for the last doves

the last dawns, the last dusks, sing virgin 

songs for unconsumed love, dance as one,

a thread of grooms and brides fluttering

like kites over the burnt face of the moon.

Tonight I shall string the hapless stars

on a loose thread in my burning mind, 

pinch them like hopeless prayer beads,

pet their virgin glow and gleam goodbye, 

lie down on clandestine cyclamens 

of white phosphorus and pink gelignite, 

celebrate love in every way we can,

and when the weary dawn arrives,

slashed and bruised, bleeding its sunrise,

ululate Mother, sing seagulls and white 

spume over the waves, sing Sisters, ululate 

the fruits of your wombs, whip the rhythm 

of the flutes, ululate and celebrate, 

let us scrape the grains of famine this day;

could it have come about any other way?

We celebrate life | the only way | we can.