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Sunday, May 12, 2024

SENATOR UNINFORMED

by Indran Amirthanayagam




A U.S. senator calls 

the tents set up 

at universities


camps for Hamas;

and he says

he supports Israel


and if Hamas 

surrenders

and hostages


are released

the war will end.

He adds 


that he is 

deeply 

disappointed


that the President

has paused

some shipments


of heavy weapons

to Israel. Deeply 

disappointed


Senator 

Fetterman?

That is how 


I feel as well 

about you. 

Your ignorance


resounds. This

is not  binary.

Instead 


of pledging 

allegiance to Israel

come what may,


why don’t you 

in turn bow 

to the Palestinian


right of return

to homes from which 

they have been  


expelled since 1948? 

Why don’t you cite 

the ever smaller


wedge of Palestinian 

land, about twenty 

percent of what 


was assigned

to them in 1948?

Can you manage


to turn your head

around that fact?

Twenty percent?. 


One fifth of 

a shrinking pie?

And you say,


hard disagree

deeply disappointed.

Mr. Fetterman


pitch your tent

in Gaza. Wait

for food 


to be dropped

from the sky

Run and hide


when bombs

fall down 

instead.



Indran Amirthanayagam is the translator of Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). Mad Hat Press has just published his love song to Haiti: Powèt Nan Pò A (Poet of the Port). Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks) is a collection of Indran's poems. Recently published is Blue Window (Ventana Azul), translated by Jennifer Rathbun. (Dialogos Books). In 2020, Indran produced a “world" record by publishing three new poetry books written in three languages: The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press, New York), Sur l'île nostalgique (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Lírica a tiempo (Mesa Redonda, Lima). He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.