An independent, ad-free leftist magazine of critical essays, poetry, fiction, and art.

Photograph from a funeral service held for Palestinian journalists Saeed Al-Taweel and Mohammad Sobh, who were killed in Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza on October 10, 2023. The journalists were killed while filming the targeting of a residential building by Israeli warplanes in Rimal district in western Gaza. Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images

It Comes Down to This

for Shireen Abu Akleh and every journalist thereafter  


What voice.
What presence.
What bravery.
What risk.
What sound.
What weapon.
What helmet.
What eyes.
What ears.
What target.
What hole.
What vest.
What blue.
What red.
What stillness.
What screams.
What loss.
What disbelief.
What grief.
What funeral.
What grief.
What distance.
What grief.
What mourners.
What grief.
What audacity.
What grief.
What clashes.
What grief.
What investigation.
What grief.
What justice.
What grief.
What inconclusiveness.
What grief.
What cycle. 
What grief.
What eternal, eternal grief.

 

 

 


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