WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

by Karen Marker

Awdah Hathaleen

An Israeli settler has shot and killed a well-known Palestinian activist whose work was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” according to witnesses, the latest deadly episode in the Israeli-occupied territory. The activist, Awdah Hathaleen, 31, was an English teacher from the southern West Bank village of Umm al-Khair. Footage he filmed was included in the documentary, which depicted the challenges Palestinians living in the territory face under Israeli rule. —The New York Times, July 29, 2025

An Israeli man whose sanctions were lifted by US President Donald Trump was seen firing a gun at the time of Hathaleen's killing, and has been arrested... It has emerged that Hathaleen was denied entry to the US just last month. He and his cousin were turned back at San Francisco International Airport despite having visas for a peace tour sponsored by faith groups. —WION, July 29, 2025

Let us paint murals
on our temple walls 
like Maxo Vanco did 
inside St. Nicholas Croatian 
Catholic Church in the 1930’s.

Let us make our Palestinian
Mother like Mary who looks 
like us holding a child
who looks like ours
but wasted from starving.
Let her eyes pierce
the hearts of those
who say this 
doesn’t really happen.

Let us paint murals
of all the mothers 
gathered in grief
around their beloved 
sons’ bodies, and the body
of our friend in the South 
Hebron Hills, six weeks ago 
turned back at the SF airport, 
a valid visa in hand, 
two days ago shot in the chest
by a settler in his village.

Let all the unbelievers
see the footage of the murderer
who has been repeatedly
pardoned for crimes. 

Let us paint the Angel of Justice.
Remember this is the time 
for breaking the silence.

Oakland, CA  poet Karen Marker is a social activist and retired school psychologist whose poetry has been published in numerous anthologies and journals including The MacGuffin, The Monterey Poetry Review, the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, WordPeace, and Slant Poetry. It can also be found in the Kent State University May 4^th Special Collections and Archives. Her first poetry book Beneath the Blue Umbrella came out recently with Finishing Line Press and explores family mental illness, stigma and healing. 

PICTURE PROBLEM

by Rémy Dambron

Video footage (via The Texas Tribune) recorded inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde at 12:04 p.m. May 24. Authorities stormed the classroom at 12:50 p.m.

this picture

evidence we all see 

now for the first time

released 

officers’ long guns drawn

from behind ballistic shields 

formed up for an advance 

but shockingly at a halt

at least five men

sworn trained and well-armed

against the one 

*murderer of children still

the photo’s caption 

stating the time scene was 

captured

12:04pm

just underneath 

another detail displayed

authorities storm the classroom

12:50pm

forty-six minutes

they stood by to witness

as calls for help simply went

(unanswered)

as parents right outside 

against their wishes 

hands tied

by more armed men who just waited

for forty-six minutes

they wouldn’t act, only witness

another sickening school shooting

ensue

Rémy Dambron is a former English teacher now Portland-based poet whose writing focuses on denouncing political corruption and advocating for social/environmental justice. With the help of his chief editor and loving wife, his works have appeared in What Rough Beast, Poets Reading the News, Writers Resist, Words & Whispers, Spillwords, Robot Butt, and The New Verse News. 

THINKING IN THE ABSTRACT

by Kristina England

If the Amanda Knox trial was a piece of art,
it would be Van Gogh's ear,
something you know is lost
but, as with so many amputated ears --
Simpson, Zimmerman, Anthony --
there's no way to hear the truth
through all the muffled questions,
lack of evidence,
ours minds teetering back and forth
like an unbalanced scale,
heads pulsing with the footsteps
of a murderer
who will never be free.


Kristina England resides in Worcester, Massachusetts.  Her writing is published or forthcoming at Extract(s), The New Verse News, The Story Shack, Tipton Poetry Journal, and other magazines.

CALIFORNIA TEEN RESCUED, MURDERER DECEASED

by Kristina England

Members of the extended Anderson and Saincome families, with James Lee DiMaggio (right) are seen in this June 2011 photo provided to the AP by Andrea Saincome. James Lee DiMaggio was killed after being sought in the abduction of Hannah Anderson (reclining). Ethan Anderson (on floor, left) was found killed along with his mother. Source: New York Daily News.

My uncle leans forward on the couch,
the news flashing across the screen.
A cop for over twenty years,
his own son a murderer -
lust, anger, drugs, the boy’s undoing.

The reports read Dead... and Alive,
but I’ve seen the ones who make it
the victims’ and murderer’s families,
what they had before,
what they thought they had,
all some distorted, unobtainable past.

My uncle’s son, caught, arrested,
locked up, then let go,
walks the streets somewhere,
neither man nor ghost,
dead or alive.

His victims - one deceased, one rescued -
nothing more than archived captions,
some story that passed away,
when the next one and the next one
and the very next one
came to life.


Kristina England resides in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her poetry and fiction is published or forthcoming in Decades Review, Gargoyle, Linguistic Erosion, The Story Shack, and other journals.