“Breaking News” by Noor Hindi

 Breaking News

We know death 
 is futile know death
 as 3.5 thousand 
 retweets a trauma 
 a thing named 
 empty in internet
 measured in the slow
 bend of your fingers 
 clicking the quiet 
 tempo of expiration
 your spleen 
 in the shape of a gun 
 in the shape of a pen 
 I am going
 door to door 
 collecting story 
 I place a tape recorder 
 at the edge of a child’s
 stroller and watch
 her position it between her teeth
 chew on story
 and argue she’s agent 
 of her own story 
 I dream of america 
 as nightmare 
 as child placing drone
 in mouth as mother 
 placing drone 
 in child’s mouth 
 to condition her tongue 
 to the taste 
 of america I see you 
 door to door 
 in eviction 
 court I attend
 and a judge asks 
 to see 
 my face so I show her 
 my blood at the edge 
 of survival 
 an audience 
 of w(h)it(e)ness
 Sir, why 
 are you being evicted 
 which system 
 what history
 I know your trauma
 is a thing we’ll name 
 breaking 
 news your trauma 
 a hunger we crave 
 your trauma behind a paywall
 your trauma we measure 
 with clicks I document 
 futility to feed america 
 more story muddled 
 by story there is a child 
 crying in front of a pink wall 
 as her home is demolished 
 in Palestine
 it moves one to tears 
 to watch
 your own reflection 
 on a screen 
 your face in anguish
 at another’s pain 
 looks so sweet
 almost heroic. 
   

Noor Hindi (she/her) is a Palestinian-American poet and reporter. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Hobart and Jubilat. Her essays have appeared or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Literary Hub, and Adroit Journal. Hindi is the Equity and Inclusion Reporter for The Devil Strip Magazine. Visit her website at noorhindi.com.