Untitled

Image Description: Police stand in a line at night, with a screen illuminated in front of them that displays half of the American flag and half of the Israeli flag

Photography by Damjan Nastic. View the full collection titled, “Resistance”, here.

The following is a submission to our open call for art related to the UCLA encampment and the Palestinian crisis.

How is a plea of righteous anger
‘gainst the profiteering off persecution
met with batons the lengths of our interlocked arms— bodily anchors and limbs—
and rows of three that stretch from one end of my campus to the other;

How is it met with contempt and censure
when the coldness of your hearts should be what’s met with fire?

How is it a crime that we beg to venture
from our present state of inequity,
to remain ruled by administrators
whose hearts house venality antithetical to their values- you corrode our culture of mutuality to profit off brutality, so don’t explain culture to me when you’re silent—
have you ever heard a room that’s abounding with joy and resilience be quiet?

Try to buy the whole world,
make the premises secure,
but you will never buy our silence.

And of that I am sure.