This Spirit
Poetry by Rania Kana’an
Painting by Noor Bahjat
You choose your resistance
and I’ll choose mine
A cactus fence
regrowing again and again
Even when it’s continuously dispensed
like hips starting in Falasteen and ending on Turtle Island
It is said that plants speak
through their roots
It is said that Palestinians
speak through theirs
A scarf originally from Al Koufa
a scar originally from birth
To parents displaced
to lands disgraced
You choose your resistance
and I’ll choose mine
A flag banned
red white green and black
Made into a watermelon
backed by poppies and an engrained map
You choose your resistance
and I’ll choose mine
Yaffa farmers
developing thick skin
To export oranges
way before this state of sin
Not all resistance is
bombs and guns
Some learned to play
with fruit and puns
And spirits so tough
they break tongues
Prick you with thorns
you thought have long gone
Reminding you that we can be
both sweet and strong
Reminding you that we will never
be-gone.
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