Image by John Kazior

Poetry the ghosts of the dead sea are rising

George Abraham

from the waters] alight [with the oceans]
alight [against] alight [this seasink] alight [into
land] alight [of us] alight [turned robe] alight [of
concrete] alight [and cement] alight [the desert] alight
[bloomed] alight [into strip] alight [ma(u/l)l] alight [settler]
alight [on branch] alight [of their own] alight [making]
alight [they see us] alight [daily] alight [wade into] alight
[beneath which] alight [o gaze] alight [o un-attention]
alight [o hyper] alight [ion] alight [of swarm] alight [electric
we] alight [revolving we] alight alight [each] alight [orbit]
alight [into other] alight [not roads] alight [but passengers
of] alight [asphalt] alight [rising] alight [beyond] alight
[the body] alight [molecular] alight [collective] alight
[blue we once] alight [could drown in] alight [touch]
alight [of river we] alight [bleed into] alight [alif of]
alight [a people] alight [pre-border] alight [from
the river] alight [to the sea] alight [from the thirsting] alight
[to the plea] alight [of salted we] alight [assault of we] alight
[can they bear us] alight [in over] alight [ed witness] alight
[we slow] alight [their steps] alight [they float] alight
[on our terms] alight [re-gravity] alight [even air] alight
[breath of we] alight [belowest] alight [bellow] alight [not
loss] alight [but continuity] alight [of] alight alight [not
sound] alight [but heart] alight [beat] alight [the shape]
alight [of silence] alight [even the dead] alight [can die] alight
[again] alight [unburied] alight [we run] alight [from river]
alight [to river] alight [towards another] alight [name] alight
[for shore] alight [line] alight [and feed] alight [their land]
alight [in rush] alight [they made of us] alight [a border] alight
[of] light [our own] light [migration] light [deposits of]
light [silt] light [can they bear us] light [in richness] light
[can they bear] light [our language of] light light [didn’t
they] light [hear us] light [when we] light [were] light
light [weren’t we always] light light [seeking bodies]
light [P] light [of] light [summer] light [passed through
us] light [F] light [of] light [               ] light [pollution]
light [s conclusion] light [eros                ion] light [corros
ion] light [un-minor] light [the                  we] light [sing
bright] light [this lonely] light [                    ] light [of] light
] light [
the land
] light [
hungers] light
[in m] ight [no
s] ight [but roaring r] ight
[of martyrs bl] ight [insistent
f] ight [for heaven n] igh [of
gates less h] igh [the silt we we] igh
[against the s] igh [so join our
j] ig [immortal d] ig [earth fleshed
like f] ig [no cop no p] ig [may they
fa] i [l then fall no] i [in hinds] i [ght
abandoned lyr] i [c scurrying] i [we’ll
leave them no] i [but m] i [rror]
i [mage of] i [fare
well] i i [n rot no] i
[we fly s] i [nk]
i [eye to] i [to
the sea’s] i [we
r] i [se]
] i [
] i [

George Abraham (they/هو) is a Palestinian American poet and the author of Birthright, which won the Arab American Book Award. They are currently Mizna’s Executive Editor, and are coediting a global Palestinian poetry anthology for Haymarket Books.