31.08.06
The tide rolls in like the petals of a flower, like flames rushing to the sky. Blossoming bright and shining. Filigree and dancing.
The shore welcomes the waves of flame. She is regal and generous. She wraps her millions of caterpillar legs around the center of bursting pebbles, sand, water and fire. On alert, but confident with her front claws she stokes the blaze.
Mesmerized I look for words, a face, animals, a pattern. I resign myself to the lull and buzz of waves and flames.
August 2006
Like jack there is a pole, a tree, a rope a beanstalk beaming down to us. I push you towards it. you are frail and ghostly, shimmering and threatening to disappear. Just go I say. This is a way out. A good way out. Take it. I use all my force to give you a boost up and pools of molten earth surge beneath me and together we are convincing. You breathe deep and exhale and skip up to the rope looking towards the clouds and mountains before you.
25.08.06
ring around the rosey, pocket full of posey. Three children play below us. We see the tops of heads and peaks of shoulders. Their feet and shoelaces. Two others volley a soccer ball skyward in a jolly dance knees up, arms fly behind their backs. They bounce in midair.
24.08.06
a nightmare. I don’t even want to look. I cannot look.
Some crawling, nightbug, dragon-like thing that has eyes only for the deepest, darkest, wettest earthen home pops its ugly head to the surface. S/he has horns and claws and smokes a cigarette. No s/he breaths fire. The smoke angles up from its snout. Its jaw like another claw snapping open and closed. It is open screeching a piercing call to others like it to rise from the depths. Its tail rocks forward as it wriggles free of graveling soil.
Our only hope is on the otherside of things -- if we dig that hole to china -- we wil find a bright light glimmering in a holy place. It is so far away, so distant that it looks like a picture postcard. But it floats on a dusky, red sea beckoning us. Light curls above it ornate in a language we do not know but that we crave. And showing us the way is huge leafy oak tree who is sometimes a talking lion. She rests in a field of wildflowers. Animals gather to her skirt and wait for us. They can’t wait for us to find another way and they know a shortcut.
But the swamp between the nightcrawly dragon clawmouth thing and our lush green tourguide deters us. We cannot trust what we see on the otherside of things. we cower and sink.
The black water is still. A flat line. Blacker than you can see. Slick flat black gives way to a volcano. Perfect peak pointing west. Or east. Well it’s not the direction that matters. It’s the cloud hovering above resting on the steam slowly pushing up from the pursed lips of the mountain’s tip.
A lacy horizon wimpers and curbs the ghosts of city sky scrapers melting in the distance.
23.08.06
The black water is still. A flat line. Blacker than you can see. Slick flat black gives way to a volcano. Perfect peak pointing west. Or east. Well it’s not the direction that matters. It’s the cloud hovering above resting on the steam slowly pushing up from the pursed lips of the mountain’s tip.
A lacy horizon wimpers and curbs the ghosts of city sky scrapers melting in the distance.
21.08.06
knees tucked into chest and toes pointed down she blurs. We look from above her thrilling dive. Her arms stretch long, thin, wispy tracing the circle of the moon new. She can hold us all. a birds wings. A seagull surveying the sands below. Her head tucks in and her hair shifts covering her eyes from our view. She floats on her back. Her reverse summersault beckons and in a flash her neck will unfold, her legs billow and swell outstretched. Her hands meet above her head, she is a crescent moon falling, floating, a gash in the sky reaching up to the sea
??.08.06
you are neglected.
I have left you to crumble into powdery cracking earth. No longer an embryo just emerging but and elephant crouching. She digs her way down in to heavy brush. She huddles her young because tho the heavens rain down quiet and calm, she can not trust herself any more. The rivers flow dry and cranky. And beyond people run, jump, fall, pull each other up and run again. They turn their heads over shoulder looking searching, knowing it cannot be so easy to escape or return that each glance turns them in a piroette. They complete a spindly anxious dance.
Beneath the rubble of our cowering bodies the sun glimmers and simmers sparks and flares. look down the barrel of your horizon cylindrical more foreboding -- less buoyant.
But if we look up up up to the very edge of what we can manage we see her. Fearless, soaring. Cliff diving arms outstretched catch air. Swayed back propels her out past treacherous close shaves. Arched legs and pointed toes up remind us of how far she has come. She may never reach the waters below, never bob her head above the rings of the sea swallowing her perfect 10. swan or sommersault or pike or half twist -- we see every one as she grasps a wisp of cloud to swing her out past our wildest dreams. We wait for her. She will come. We will lift our eyes then neck then shoulders back and open our arms to swim past the heavy current and join her where the air is light and the salty sea holds us steady.
Sometime after 08.14.06
At the eye of the storm, the center of the wirlpool the sea is glassy and calm. Flat. We spin in a circle slow slow slow gliding slick. We do not leave a ripple. We see for eons. Layers of what is to come and that before we were born. We breathe it all in lightly. Rows and rows of sediment implore us up and out. The rivermouth drops its jaw to us. This way.
Week of 14.08.06
The tip of the lull of a volcano hot swirls with ash. A tornado condensed into one puff of smoke above our head, below our feet. Constellations pop out of sandy brine. Each spark coaxing us out to the edge. Dust collecting by the mouth of the black hole. Suspended.
Text: UN Lebanon Resolution 1701, passed unanimously by the UN Security Council aimed at ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Security Council,
RECALLING all its previous resolutions on Lebanon, in particular resolutions 425 (1978), 426 (1978), 520 (1982), 1559 (2004), 1655 (2006), 1680 (2006) and 1697 (2006), as well as the statements of its president on the situation in Lebanon, in particular the statements of 18 June, 2000, of 19 October, 2004, of 4 May 2005, of 23 January 2006 and of 30 July 2006;
EXPRESSING its utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and in Israel since Hezbollah's attack on Israel on 12 July 2006, which has already caused hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons;
EMPHASIZING the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasising the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers;
MINDFUL of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging the efforts aimed at urgently settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel;
WELCOMINGthe efforts of the Lebanese prime minister and the commitment of the government of Lebanon, in its seven-point plan, to extend its authority over its territory, through its own legitimate armed forces, such that there will be no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon, welcoming also its commitment to a UN force that is supplemented and enhanced in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operation, and bearing in mind its request in this plan for an immediate withdrawal of the Israeli forces from southern Lebanon;
DETERMINED to act for this withdrawal to happen at the earliest;
TAKING due note of the proposals made in the seven-point plan regarding the Shebaa farms area;
WELCOMING the unanimous decision by the government of Lebanon on 7 August 2006 to deploy a Lebanese armed force of 15,000 troops in south Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws behind the Blue Line and to request the assistance of additional forces from Unifil as needed, to facilitate the entry of the Lebanese armed forces into the region and to restate its intention to strengthen the Lebanese armed forces with material as needed to enable it to perform its duties;
AWARE of its responsibilities to help secure a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict;
DETERMINING that the situation in Lebanon constitutes a threat to international peace and security;
1.CALLS for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations;
2. Upon full cessation of hostilities, CALLS upon the government of Lebanon and Unifil as authorised by paragraph 11 to deploy their forces together throughout the South and calls upon the government of Israel, as that deployment begins, to withdraw all of its forces from southern Lebanon in parallel;
3. EMPHASIZES the importance of the extension of the control of the government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1559 (2004) and resolution 1680 (2006), and of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, for it to exercise its full sovereignty, so that there will be no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon;
4. REITERATES its strong support for full respect for the Blue Line;
5. Also REITERATES its strong support, as recalled in all its previous relevant resolutions, for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon within its internationally recognized borders, as contemplated by the Israeli-Lebanese General Armistice Agreement of 23 March 1949;
6. CALLS on the international community to take immediate steps to extend its financial and humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese people, including through facilitating the safe return of displaced persons and, under the authority of the government of Lebanon, reopening airports and harbours, consistent with paragraphs 14 and 15, and calls on it also to consider further assistance in the future to contribute to the reconstruction and development of Lebanon;
7. AFFIRMS that all parties are responsible for ensuring that no action is taken contrary to paragraph 1 that might adversely affect the search for a long-term solution, humanitarian access to civilian populations, including safe passage for humanitarian convoys, or the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons, and calls on all parties to comply with this responsibility and to cooperate with the Security Council;
8. CALLS for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:
Full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;
security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorised in paragraph 11, deployed in this area;
Full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state;
No foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government;
No sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as authorized by its government;
Provision to the United Nations of all remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel's possession;
9. INVITES the secretary general to support efforts to secure as soon as possible agreements in principle from the government of Lebanon and the government of Israel to the principles and elements for a long-term solution as set forth in paragraph 8, and expresses its intention to be actively involved;
10. REQUESTS the secretary general to develop, in liaison with relevant international actors and the concerned parties, proposals to implement the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), including disarmament, and for delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including by dealing with the Shebaa farms area, and to present to the Security Council those proposals within 30 days;
11. DECIDES, in order to supplement and enhance the force in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operations, to authorize an increase in the force strength of Unifil to a maximum of 15,000 troops, and that the force shall, in addition to carrying out its mandate under resolutions 425 and 426 (1978):
a. Monitor the cessation of hostilities;
b. Accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the South, including along the Blue Line, as Israel withdraws its armed forces from Lebanon as provided in paragraph 2;
c. Coordinate its activities related to paragraph 11 (b) with the government of Lebanon and the government of Israel;
d. Extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons;
e. Assist the Lebanese armed forces in taking steps towards the establishment of the area as referred to in paragraph 8;
f. Assist the government of Lebanon, at its request, to implement paragraph 14;
12. ACTING in support of a request from the government of Lebanon to deploy an international force to assist it to exercise its authority throughout the territory, authorizes Unifil to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilised for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council, and to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, ensure the security and freedom of movement of United Nations personnel, humanitarian workers, and, without prejudice to the responsibility of the government of Lebanon, to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence;
13. REQUESTS the secretary general urgently to put in place measures to ensure Unifil is able to carry out the functions envisaged in this resolution, urges member states to consider making appropriate contributions to Unifil and to respond positively to requests for assistance from the Force, and expresses its strong appreciation to those who have contributed to Unifil in the past;
14. CALLS upon the government of Lebanon to secure its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel and requests Unifil as authorised in paragraph 11 to assist the government of Lebanon at its request;
15. DECIDES further that all states shall take the necessary measures to prevent, by their nationals or from their territories or using their flag vessels or aircraft; a. the sale or supply to any entity or individual in Lebanon of arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, whether or not originating in their territories, and; b. the provision to any entity or individual in Lebanon of any technical training or assistance related to the provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of the items listed in subparagraph (a) above, except that these prohibitions shall not apply to arms, related material, training or assistance authorised by the government of Lebanon or by Unifil as authorised in paragraph 11;
16. DECIDES to extend the mandate of Unifil until 31 August 2007, and expresses its intention to consider in a later resolution further enhancements to the mandate and other steps to contribute to the implementation of a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution;
17. REQUESTS the secretary general to report to the Council within one week on the implementation of this resolution and subsequently on a regular basis;
18. STRESSES the importance of, and the need to achieve, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, based on all its relevant resolutions including its resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 338 (1973) of 22 October 1973;
19. DECIDES to remain actively seized of the matter.
13.08.06
a worm pushing its head up to the surface while flares rain down. Diving streaks aimless. If we were celebrating something I might think fireworks. If only it could be so sweet and firey.
you say there will be a new girl in my life.
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [Praxis 2006] urgent support for Lebanon read now!
From: "machete amor"
Date: Wed, August 9, 2006 12:54 pm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heres the deal- Lebanese and internationals here in Beirut are oganizing
a caravan to bring humanitarian aid to people in the south who are not
getting it, and are literally dying from thirst, hunger, illness. We will
leave Beirut August 12th, this saturday, at 7 am (please note time
difference). This is very dangerous, since israel + IDF has said it will bomb
any cars. We are in touch with alot of media, and this is crucial, to have
international and media eyes watching. yes, I feel strange about
mainstream media aswell but we are trying to draw alot of attention, and
maybe not get bombed, ya know? the webpage is www.lebanonsolidarity.org
ACTION- we need you all to call as much attention to this caravan as
possible, within the next few days. If you have press contacts, indy
press or whatever media, all media is cool right now, send them our email
and phone in lebanon -(country code -961) 70 150 247 so we can talk about
the caravan. If you know anyone organizing demos on saturday (it is
international day of action against israel or something, so there wil be
demos) try to get contacts so that people can speak live or recorded at
the rallies from the caravan. This may sound not too
exciting for you all but it has to be done, to at least try to protect
people on the caravan.
The caravan is not working with political parties and not asking Israel
for permission to go south (ie, permission so that they wont airstrike
us).
Please get on it.
and when this is all over and done -- ya se acabo, si podemos imaginar esto, el final de la violencia y odio…
when this is all over and done where will you be? Will you be there by my side todavia. Will you forget me for some other more tender and gentle lover. One with fewer tragedies; mine are endless, we have established that. Mis aventuras no son sencillas --- sin termina -- como siempre, con migo siempre.
Y tu. Will you come to me despite the endless trajicomico que es mi vida,
mis problemas propios. 
When this is all over and done: my hair will be long, I will need caffeine, and I will have forgotten the taste of una cerveza fresca, tijuanesa o bohemia, mis favoritas --
y tu.
August 2006 (8 or 9?)
We cower and huddle and hold our children to our breasts. We rock them and sing them to sleep. We look in horror at the backs of important people who seem to have some sway in the world of power. One of our gang sits ready waiting, listening for any small word, secret, sign. she has a direct line to one of the dignitaries walking tall with a neck so long it might be his back and nose in the air confident. This direct line is a leash an arm extended but it is unclear who controls who… we assume the dignitary is the one leaving crumbs for us to eat, but this could be a two way line. This important person on our side walks into a cloud of a woman. She barrs his passage like a checkpoint. She leans in and sticks her nose beneath our guy’s chin. She has many arms hiding under her skirt and she wants to know everything about him. Our guy stands strong and walks on the treadmill she maneuvers. Behind her monkeys swing in trees and chickens dance spindly. The evil cloud lady silouette stares us in the eyes but speaks out the back of her head in a language cross and indiscernable.
We listen, cross our fingers and light our own fires. And above/below a flower blossoms in the sea and opens up to small curious fish nibbling at her core. And when we look up from the billowing petals we see the mountain pushing at the back of the trees where the monkeys swing. We see this mountains whisper forcefully to open the wall of silence and impertinence. She does not find the monkeys cute or comical. She does not giggle at their antics, one standing on the other’s head, singing to the sky and the tops of branches. She plows forward and sometimes for extra power, she turns her back and braces her knees bent and pushes up and back. We cheer for her and admire her rolling strength and purpose.
The moon pushes full and I can see a smile, a ghost and the small foot of a baby yet born. This holds us all up. as we dive and drown deeper in the sea. A warrior woman gallops to the rescue on a sea horse gallant. Led by younger, stallions, she approaches a forest of coral. The reef camouflages a witch of a dancing woman her hips and head swept by currents, she greets our warrior. She sits on a throne of kelp. She listens to our plight. She sings a song that circles us and halos the heavens.
On the other side of town there is a beast, an ox or bull or man that strides a thick branch or tube, or dick. He is attached by suckers and he thinks this nourishes him and gives him life. It is his mouthpiece and he too sings. But every note becomes an empty promise. His crooning masquerades as something sweet. But his heart was ripped out long ago and this branch of life he clings to has no sturdy roots, just tendrils and black ominous clouds.
The flames rise at his back and helicopters hover overhead
Call to Action for August 12
National Emergency March on Washington D.C.
I lend my voice to the thousands of people from all over the United States who will be converging in front of the Bush White House on Saturday August 12 in opposition to the U.S. backed Israeli war against the people of Palestine and Lebanon.
The death toll climbs ever higher as Israeli war planes destroy bridges, power stations, roads, apartment complexes, and convoys of civilians fleeing the war zone.
For the past five months, since the Palestinian people elected a government that Bush and Olmert found “unacceptable,” there has been a non-stop campaign to deprive the Palestinian people of food, water and medicine. More than 9,500 Palestinians, including 335 children, have been held as hostages in Israeli prisons.
When the Palestinians took one Israeli soldier prisoner it was used as a pretext for an all-out military assault on the people of Gaza. When the Lebanese resistance movement captured two Israeli soldiers it was used as an excuse for the full scale bombing of Lebanon.
Having learned the lesson of Iraq, we recognize that Bush and the Israeli government are carrying out a long planned and premeditated war under a false pretext. The targeted peoples are portrayed in carefully crafted war propaganda as the “aggressors” rather than the victims of aggression.
Reality has been turned upside down by the Israeli and White House propaganda machine. The U.S. accuses Syria and Iran of acting as “foreign powers” meddling in the Middle East and initiating war in Lebanon, while it is the U.S. government that actually provides $15 million each day to Israel along with the most sophisticated weapons so that it can wage war against all the people of the region.
The real purpose of the war is closely linked to the aggression against Iraq. The Bush administration, and its backers in Congress, is seeking to “reorganize” the oil-rich Middle East as an outpost of the new American Empire. Toppling the government of Iraq, destroying the Palestinian National Resistance, establishing U.S. puppet regimes in Lebanon, Syria and Iran are the unstated but real objectives of Bush’s “endless war” scenario in the Middle East.
The people of the United States must stand together and reject the lies of the war propaganda. Instead of spending billions of dollars each week for war and occupation we demand money for jobs and education. The Palestinian and Lebanese people must be allowed to exercise their basic right of self-determination, the right to live free from colonial occupation. The Palestinian people must have the right to return to their homes and villages.
I endorse and will take specific action to support the August 12 National Emergency March on Washington.
The August 12 National Emergency March on Washington is initiated by the ANSWER Coalition, the National Council of Arab-Americans (NCA), and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
we interrupt your languid reading of violence to share with you this message.
hint: open the link on the date...
05.08.06
You tickle my forehead with all the fingers of your right hand. you tap out a message, a song, a warning, a goodbye. I wait obediently. I look at you with all your beautiful jangling sparkly bangles. The gold flickers. I only want to see the shimmering light against your chest flashing.
It is not until you turn you back to me and walk away that I hear the others. A whisper becomes a rumble. The din opens up to quick sharp smacks interrupting the breeze. Low thick mumble breaks into a piercing something real. You raise your hand and your head tilts up past your fingertips. Your back sways stiff waiting.
ROAAAAAAAAAAA --- AAAAAY --- OOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR
You are gone for so long.
When will you come back to me?
Hey, here over here. Remember me. don’t go.
02.08.06
You hate my guts. Fucking gringa
You’re right in this. No nothing. My debt is high at this point. No place for forgiveness. You scream at me. I can’t be doing this. Not this.
You won’t accept my call. I hang up. stunned. And then I step back in, I ask why. Why won’t you take my call. And this is just a small part of it. A very small part. Un pedacito de un pedazo de algo muy muy muy pequeno next to the very big huge bombs dropping on your head. Pounding down. Smashing the house next door into splinters. I want to yell back. But I am quiet. This is war. You say.
to my cool american friends
we interrupt this other overly 'poetic' blog for an important update de los exilios:
i am outraged at all those americans who leave
comments on lebanese blogs saying oh, i am really
sorry my tax money is used to bomb your people. and i
am also fed up with all of you who nag about this
crazy administration of yours and don't have the
courage to flee your country although you have
education, a beautifull soul and an american passport
that allow you to make it wherever you are and you are
still there paying for those murderers to go on
colonising and terrorising the world.
i really thought i will heal my wounds.
but there's no way to peace to my heart anymore.
this is endless war.
to all americans and israelis who still live on
american and israeli lands.
untill then,
best regards
Each morning I drink coffee. We ran out of finely ground Arabica with cardomon imported from someplace far, packaged in Brooklyn, then carried on board, across the border to Tijuana. It was a small gesture a housewarming. We drank it all slowly boiled, so now we drink coarser grounds from Chiapas. They seem out of place in a French press, but the results are good, we can live with it. Las tazas. Bonitas, chiquitas, con rayas de varios colores: azul, naranja con rojo, Amarillo con naranja, solo falta verde. Las tazas. De otra vida. De que. Maybe el dia segundo o tercero recorde. Recorde que en la casa de la mama tuya, hay estas tazas iguales. Las mismas. Really. I know it. We drink coffee from them. They are every day tazas. Tazas in your mother’s house. Locked up. throw away the key. No one will return. The cups will sit on the shelf waiting if we are lucky. Or we will see them at the bottom of shreds of walls in a photo in a newspaper - on the nightly news. The small cups with colorful stripes that never did anything to anyone broken, crushed. And next to them all the other small things left behind because you didn’t need them at the moment that you left the house. A belt, a box of photos, some paints, the dvd you borrowed, the book of poetry she gave you. And the big things - paintings, old cameras, books and books and books, your bed, a chair, your closet, the plants on your balcony looking out on your street busy with people. All things you can do without for a short time. You didn’t want your bag too heavy burdensome. Just take the essentials leave the rest, you’ll be back soon enough.
Locked up. Throw away the key. Maybe your mother has the key in her bag. She comes across them looking for a pen, then later reaching for her lipstick. And you too. You put the keys in a small pocket in your backpack. A set of keys: the front door, the gate downstairs, your car, your moto -- no you got rid of that last summer. The front door, the gate downstairs …
