Word Weapon
By Niall Twohig
At the site of the cleared encampment, a handwritten note posted over an official sign
We saw violence this week,
force deployed against peaceful protestors,
police in riot gear,
snipers atop health services,
border patrol far beyond the border.
Some of you saw the violence firsthand,
the poppy bruise on your friend’s stomach,
the swollen eyes of your roommate, pepper sprayed.
But there’s another type of violence
that doesn’t use batons, pepper spray, rubber bullets—
The violence of the word.
Words deployed, like ziptie handcuffs,
that criminalize
protestors who say
“no more bombs in our name.”
Words deployed, as bullets,
that aim at all of Palestine
as enemy.
Words deployed, as bombs,
that get us to question the reality
of bodies under the rubble of Rafah.
Words deployed, with a razor’s edge,
that carve away the depths of an event,
that carve away the song and dance,
that carve away that moment in the camp
when Jewish students
feed their Palestinian brothers and sisters
sliced watermelon.
You, who summoned the violence,
You should’ve seen them.
You should’ve heard them.
You should’ve listened to them.
Instead, you saw and heard the propaganda
then spread some of your own.
Instead, you woke them in the cruelest way.
And you wrote them in the cruelest way.