Childhood Notes on Palestine
Marvin Ellis Jackmon
photo Alicia Mayo
It was not enough to be born
May 29, 1944
Just before atom bomb Japan
Then when I was 4
Mom and Dad took us to the drive-in theater
After cowboys killed Indians
Newsreel came on
Dad went to get popcorn
I watched news
Saw all those people fleeing Palestine
Across bridge into Jordan
I didn't understand then.
Don't understand now
Pain of Palestine
I don't understand why Hitler
Killed Jews
don't understand hatred so deep
I wish somebody could help me understand the joy of oppressing another human being
grinding them into dust lampshades
but before Hitler King Leopold's Congo
Imagine the Ottomans and Armenians
Hutus and Tutsis
Boku Haram Taliban
Irish Catholics Protestants
Irag Sunni Shia inhumanity
Remember that song
"How Long has this been going on?"
I don't understand why Jews
Won't share the land
After Hitler how can Jews
Deny humanity of Palestinians anyone
How can you mistreat God's people
Yet you are chosen of God
You crush the oppressed
Yet you were crushed
Your suffering taught you nothing
You are chosen yet blind
In the Holy land
what price ancient myths rituals
When unholiness is your practice
You think carnal weapons will suffice
Are you superior to God
Do you worship God
Are do you suppose God
Worships you?
Dad came with popcorn
We ate
1948
Watched cowboys kill Indians.
Didn't know we was "Indians" too.
--Marvin X
5/12/21
Marvin X at Gaza protest, Seattle WA, 2014