TRACK//FOUR
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WHEN FILMING A FAKE AL-QAEDA

ZAINA ALSOUS
Remember these are the facts.*

Screams could be real screams, will be real 
screams; the lamb and the butcher      after 
a car bomb.                       A mother pushing 
returned son in a chair. This is a real chair.

Wheels on the army bus go round and round
Baghdad round and round Baltimore. 
              Classrooms sing smear 
crayon letters to camouflage heroes. Heroes

saving us from real danger see: psychological
operation. 
What would we do without the bad men 
in movies; the abdomen rush, a hydrant

turned    open
when they get what they deserve.

Judges in powder wigs Plato lecturing 
uses of propaganda for          the good 
polis in fine linen. Men in costume

tell us     what is. Applaud 
​                a woman sectioned 
on stage fill a stranger’s lungs call
the drowning intelligence pull a rabbit 

out of a hat. Watch how quickly 
                            bombs transform into fireworks 
through a screen. 
*As reported by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, between 2007 and 2011 the Pentagon contracted with British PR firm Bell Pottinger, for over $500 million to produce fabricated news of terrorist attacks and fake al-Qaeda recruitment videos.

POEM ABOUT EVOLUTION

ZAINA ALSOUS
after Lucille Clifton

slice an orchid                out
once     open,        place lips
in a watch         or just chew
the lume             spit out a tadpole        shiny        new
after extinction                                        blame the weather

                            release,

attract flies         I paint a room             yellow, alone
I will paint a house        one day too,                keep
patting your belly           blow your nose,     I am not
the woman you are waiting
for, I am not the woman
                        ​    NO

ZAINA ALSOUS is a poet daughter of Palestinian Muslim immigrants, and anti-racist activist currently residing in North Carolina. Her poems have appeared in The Offing, Word Riot, Human Equity through Art Journal and elsewhere.
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  • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • CONTACT
    • CONTRIBUTORS
  • ISSUES
    • VOLUME ONE >
      • ISSUE ONE
      • ISSUE TWO
      • ISSUE THREE
      • ISSUE FOUR
    • VOLUME TWO >
      • ISSUE ONE
      • ISSUE TWO
      • ISSUE THREE
      • ISSUE FOUR
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • BLOG