terrorist

by Cynthia Dewi Oka

another morning burns
under growl of tanks their hunger
flattens rock and bone alike

sun’s scrutiny ruptured my body
chosen. fingers
too old for their length

pull and prod and manoeuvre
me into sweat misted palm
smaller than a grown maple leaf

invisible my mission
begins in garbled pitch
wailing flaps like dying fish

i knew my turn would come
soon the days of watching
blood crust to earth would end

in the seconds waiting i plot
another life
in the dim of olive trees

left to wholeness with mouths
they feed mouths with more
time. like the others

this boy will perish releasing
me in one calculated arc against
all the world’s demons i make

my mark on zion. steel
god is not watching
god is not here or there

twenty feet away boy flesh
mighty for faith in land and people
made jam by Galatz rounds

i am not engineered for requiem
designated by industrial rubber
to dust for guarding his sleep

all the scorched mornings of siege

Cynthia Dewi Oka is a Chinese-Indonesian poet, popular educator and activist based in Vancouver, B.C. — Unceded Coast Salish Territories.