I know
The blood-curdling dread
Of a gun’s cold barrel pressed
Into my clammy neck,
Arms twisted so far back,
I feel a searing, jarring crack,
Before all goes black

I know the choking pain
When the cool muzzle is replaced
By pressure so suffocating,
There’s no relief
Until my writhing limbs
Go limp

I know
Prison cells
Dark as hell,
Designed to dehumanise,
Control and terrorise

And yet,
The struggles of black Americans
And stateless Palestinians
Coincide
Beyond our partially parallel lives

Our fate and fight are intertwined
By American-Israeli collusion and lies
Enabling the world’s last white settler colony to thrive
On the blood and brutality of war crimes,
Checkpoints, curfews, and apartheid

So, as I’m suffocated by white cops
And close my tired eyes
Your tears and agony are also mine,

For the powers that threaten our black American lives,
Also sanction and support
Palestinian Occupation,
Expulsion
Erasure,

Genocide

Fatema Valji
@fatemavaljipoetry