Along the Shrapnel Edge of Maps
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Along the Shrapnel Edge of Maps
22
it’s like Russian roulette / a circle you don’t know if you will
be inside it next time / I have only told you half
of what I fear / I fear it’s too late / is the answer
lingering in air like the smell of explosives & burned flesh
If I’m out somewhere & I hear a balloon pop / I jump
the quiet heroism of trying to live a Jewish life / taking your kids
to school / to have a croissant over a cup of coffee / to flirt with a girl
23
her name was Rachel she listened the bodies found on opposite
to Pink Floyd & Christina Aguilera her name was Ayat she watched
ends of the Supersol supermarket the television / intifada on Al-Jazeera
one wasn’t afraid of being bombed one wasn’t afraid of being a bomb [End Page 1153]
around the face of the dead / martyr murderer / I made the frame myself
around the face of the victim / victim oppressor / I made the frame
myself the frame / the frame hanging on the walls of the living / rooms [End Page 1154]
Philip Metres teaches literature and creative writing at John Carroll University (Cleveland, OH). He is author of the poetry collection To See the Earth, the critical work Behind the Lines: War Resistance Poetry on the American Homefront Since 1941, and other books. He has also published poetry in Best American Poetry, Inclined to Speak: Contemporary Arab American Poetry, and other anthologies.
