BOULDER

by Jeremy Nathan Marks

Sunrise over the Flatiron Range near Boulder, Colorado.

A man has been charged with a federal hate crime and multiple other felonies after he allegedly used a makeshift flamethrower and incendiary devices to attack a crowd of people who were raising awareness for Israeli hostages in Gaza, injuring 12 victims. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, is alleged to have shouted “Free Palestine” as he attacked the crowd on Sunday. The FBI said Soliman told police he planned the attack for a year and had specifically targeted what he described as the “Zionist group”, the Associated Press reported. —The Guardian, June 3, 2025

The Boulder mountains began as fire

perhaps that’s why they are known

as the Flatiron Range

 

If you look into their hearts you will find

fossils from the sea. Simple single cellular

creatures. Who by fire and Who by water.

 

In America, many folks like to say our story

will end in flame. I’ve seen John 3:16 signs

at Coors Field and when Mel Gibson made 

his film about Jesus, some pastor hung 

a billboard above I-25 saying the Jews 

Killed Christ. Jews kill Jews. Who gets to 

say.

 

A man throwing Molotov cocktails 

at people who want Israeli hostages freed, 

is he the authority on Jews Israel’s 

ambassador and foreign minister believe 

him to be.

 

The pressure which births mountains is 

hard to imagine. What it takes to sustain 

foundational myths across time, rebuild

temples, dream of olive trees is a pressure 

of perhaps equal force in human terms 

and very hard to fathom.

As I write this, someone would have 

you believe Jews possess a divine power 

to solve or cause all the worst excesses 

in the world. They might also think all

Palestinians want an eye for an eye. 

What is a Mashiac. Who are the prophets. 

Should we ask the mountains over Boulder.

 

The work of the Flatirons is not malevolent.

Moses didn’t receive tablets from Sinai 

but on it. Universes come and go with each 

blink of the high peaks.

Brahma sits on his lotus. 

Generals confer in bunkers.

The Earth’s crust floats on lava. 

Hashem has many names that depict 

His moods.

Not everyone says He is merely a He.

Christians speak of trinities.

 

Today, free speech invites a fire fight. 

We assemble in our mortar formations. 

I pumped gas this morning 

and it’s all I can taste.

Jeremy Nathan Marks is a former Colorado resident who lives and writes in Canada.

ASKING

by Tricia Knoll

I can’t always keep track of the advice and 

questions that blur the fog of war. 

Even from this distance. 

Who said to be out of the cemetery before moonrise? 

Is it colder to sleep in the basement

            of a parking garage or a subway station? 

What do underground train stations have in common

            besides big clocks?

How did vodka come from the Russian word for little water?

What makes one leader heroic and another

            a steely-eyed fish? 

How many preachers are retelling the story

            of David and Goliath? 

How many cities in the world 

            have air raid sirens ready to go? 

For the dogs of war loosed from their homes, 

            who stockpiles the kibble?  

Who said to put your old rubles in bottom drawers

            for use later as bookmarks?  

Who uses more gasoline, the reporters

            driving from east to west or south to north

or neighbors making Molotov cocktails?

What becomes of a blown-out tank? After. 

And trenches? 

What would I pack in one suitcase? 

Has anyone ever counted how many cities

            end up as rubble?

Why have I thought for the first time in my life

            I could pick up a rifle? Armed gramma? 

When so much crumbles, how can it possibly

            be rebuilt?

When will the women and children come home? 

How did people come to love their land so much?

What will wee children remember 

            to tell their children? And grandchildren. 

Is this how hate spawns in history’s flow? 

Tricia Knoll sits in the woods in Vermont, avidly following the news out of Ukraine. She recently has had two chapbooks published: Checkered Mates in 2021 and Let's Hear It for the Horses in 2022.