THINKING ABOUT THE NEWS, I PICK WILD RASPBERRIES

by Bonnie Naradzay

Israeli forces have concluded their largest-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in decades, killing at least 12 Palestinians and leaving widespread destruction across the city’s refugee camp. —CNN, July 5, 2023. The Israeli military says all of the at least 12 Palestinians killed in its near 48-hour operation were combatants, and that its operation aimed to break the mindset that Jenin is a “safe haven” for militants. But the Palestinian fighters parading through the streets in broad daylight, with weapons strapped to their chests, showed that they remain unbroken and defiant. The Jenin Brigade, a faction affiliated with the wider Islamic Jihad group, said eight of the dead, ranging in age from 16- to 21-years-old, came from among their ranks. Meanwhile, United Nations experts have stated that five children were among the dead. Muhammad Darwish Photo: The back wall of Hanaa al-Shalaby's daughters' room was blown out, leaving chunks of rubble on a small bed. —CNN, July 7, 2023

Walking along the road to the metro,

I have read that of 12 killed so far, 

5 were children. The IDF claimed

they were all terrorists. The clusters

of raspberries are red and I eat them.

Over 1,000 soldiers supported 

by missile-carrying drones

invaded dense neighborhoods.

IDF means Israel Defense Force;

it withdrew with its armored cars 

from the Jenin refugee camp only 

after depriving families of electricity, 

water; after smashing roads to rubble;

after blocking ambulances trying to reach

the wounded, after invading hospitals

and detonating canisters of tear gas there.

The raspberries are still safe to eat.

The news says Israel is buying 25 

more F-35 stealth fighter jets from 

the U.S. for free; the deal is financed 

through U.S. military aid: nearly 

$4 billion given outright to Israel 

every year no matter what; 

not as loans to be paid back.

I turn back to the raspberries, 

remembering that time I ate ripe

mulberries from a tree in the park. 

The UN observer on tv said Jenin, 

in the Occupied West Bank,

is in Area A, which is supposedly 

under the sole control of Palestine.  

Meanwhile Israel launched airstrikes 

attacking Gaza again. I pay my fare 

at the metro, go downtown 

to the homeless shelter, and share 

poems by Tu Fu and Langston Hughes.

Bonnie Naradzay’s recent poems are in AGNI, New Letters, Kenyon Review, Tampa Review,  Birmingham Poetry Review, Crab Creek Review, and many other sites. She was awarded the New Orleans MFA’s poetry prize:  a month’s stay in the South Tyrol castle (in the Dolomites) of Ezra Pound’s daughter Mary. For many years, she has led regular poetry sessions at shelters for the homeless and at a retirement center, all in Washington, DC. 

ABDUCTED GOLDFISH

by Kenton K. Yee

Dean Young, 1955-2022

In The Art of Recklessness (Graywolf, 2010), the poet Dean Young's exhilarating book-length essay on writing poetry, he repeatedly questions and rejects the idea that the most important thing in writing poetry is an acquired mastery of craft, suggesting that it comes at the expense of intuition, risk-taking, wildness, and negative capability. He writes, exasperatedly and in all caps, "WE ARE MAKING BIRDS, NOT BIRDCAGES!" —Michael Dumanis, Editor of Bennington Review

I ping. I ping love.

 

I ping love and I love pings.

Here’s one from the library:

Due in two.

 

Love me my deadlines.

Ping me butter melting,

cantaloupe ripening,

gasps quickening.

 

Dean Young.

 

Ducks.

 

Abduct.

 

I’m waiting for the gulls to return my goldfish.

I’m waiting for squirrels to sing like nightingales,

daisies to bear me raspberries,

and bonsai trunks or cornflakes.

I’m waiting for bugles to herald the dying of salmon.

 

All this sun and all that sun.

The melting hours. Starlight. Dew.

The lackadaisical one

who settles for steam turned to rice.

Author’s Note: This poem is in memory of Dean Young, who passed away a few days ago. When I first took up poetry, I didn't know what to make of Dean Young and his rich language and ranging movements. Now, he's become one of my poetry role models.

Kenton K. Yee recently placed poetry in Constellations, Plume Poetry, The Threepenny Review, The Indianapolis Review, Matter, Lily Poetry Review, and Pembroke Magazine, among others. An Iowa Summer Poetry Workshop alumnus, he writes from northern California.