today’s spell song offer to the multifaith prayer circle for palestine. we were joined by ahmed – you can support his family here. parts in italics are sung as simply as possible.
free free palestine
free free palestine
free free palestine
free free palestine
i keep studying how the trees send their messages underground
send nourishment, send warning.
how the trees pull up rivers from the ground
and swallow sunlight into their rough skin straight from the air
the trees must show the babies in palestine how to do this
i slip out to the red maple in my yard when i think no one will see me – in case it works and becomes insurgent
i whisper into the leaves:
take this safe bask in sunlight to palestine
and a great lake of fresh water to palestine
take the true rest of peace time to palestine
take the nutrients from my soil to palestine
take the wheat, take every seed that can grow to palestine
bone and gristle, let fat drip to each chin in palestine
green leaves stewed with sumac and oil in palestine
let this za’atar dusted bread fill each mouth in palestine
even here where i have not been bombed one time
while my country was bombing yours
even here where they fight to call genocide war
even here on this corrupt and colonized dirt
even here you are loved
the trees here whisper on behalf of the ghosts
who want to feed you
as i want to feed you
i imagine the mycelial thread praying its blind way through the dirt
coming to the edge of the ocean
burrowing down further into a place unimaginably hot and full of life
and somehow my heart vibrating drum roots across tectonic plates
coming up into that sea i only know from your pictures
coming up through and beyond all barricades
hands full of freedom and food
take this fully formed fruit and vision to palestine
send great plants that can gift good life to palestine
let the flowers bloom into shelters in palestine
let the world see humanity there in palestine
i whisper until i am weeping
and i ask the trees to carry everything to you in palestine
i weep with shame that i and we have not found a way to stop this massacre
we do not yet know ourselves how to survive these bullies
to stop this death cult
i do not yet know how, i don’t know how
but i remember, we are the majority
and our ancestors root around us, in copses of comfort and revolution
maple and olive, birch and pine
i remember: we who want to live have to live together
we who want to live have to live together
i whisper down into the trees to show us a way to hold onto each other
through the fire
through the logging
through the drought
through the rapists in highest office
who make everything a violation
through the hate and cruelty
and then through this awakening, this too slow awakening, to the truth
through the aftermath of the awakening when everyone will say they always knew better
through to the future, the inevitable future
where palestine is free…
i trust the trees more than any nation.
i trust our ancestors more than any leader
some of these trees are older than us, they have always known us
they hold our ancestors like water, like sun
when i sing of palestine to the tree in the yard,
she touches my face,
she takes away my tears,
to make for you
a medicine of life
free free palestine
free free palestine
free free palestine
free free palestine