Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L. by June Jordan

Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L.
June Jordan

I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
GENOCIDE TO STOP
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION AND REACTION
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED MUSIC
OUT THE WINDOWS
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
NOBODY THIRST AND NOBODY
NOBODY COLD
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED I WANTED
JUSTICE UNDER MY NOSE
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
BOUNDARIES TO DISAPPEAR

I WANTED
NOBODY ROLL BACK THE TREES!
I WANTED
NOBODY TAKE AWAY DAYBREAK!
I WANTED
NOBODY FREEZE ALL THE PEOPLE ON THEIR
KNEES!

I WANTED YOU
I WANTED YOUR KISS ON THE SKIN OF MY SOUL
AND NOW YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME AND I STAND
DESPITE THE TRILLION TREACHERIES OF SAND
YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME AND I HOLD THE LONGING
OF THE WINTER IN MY HAND
YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME AND I COMMIT
TO FRICTION AND THE UNDERTAKING
OF THE PEARL

YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME
YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME

AND I HAVE BEGUN
I BEGIN TO BELIEVE MAYBE
MAYBE YOU DO

I AM TASTING MYSELF
IN THE MOUTH OF THE SUN

SELECTED BY TARIQ LUTHUN

This poem isn’t necessarily my favorite, but it holds personal meaning because of who it comes from and the way it finds itself everywhere.

Initially, I was going to read you a different poem, but then I saw “I SAID I LOVED AND I WANTED GENOCIDE TO STOP” and a peace sign in the colors of the Palestinian flag scrawled in grafitti along a concrete wall. I don’t know where the wall was — perhaps it was the wall erected by the Zionists who seek to cordon off Palestinians from the rest of our homeland, perhaps it was in Ireland, or South America, or somewhere in the occupied territories known as the “United States.”

Regardless, it is from June Jordan’s “Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L.” and I felt it necessary to read, not simply because of what’s been happening in Gaza and Palestine at large, but because Jordan is a prophet and a comrade and an ancestor who models for us what truth and power can be found in language, even in what some might deem a simple poem full driven by a desire to achieve love and liberation — never one without the other.

ABOUT TARIQ LUTHUN

Tariq Luthun is a Detroit-born, Dearborn-raised community organizer, data consultant, and Emmy Award-winning poet. He is a Kresge Arts in Detroit fellow that earned his MFA in Poetry from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Luthun’s work has earned him such honors as being named Best of the Net, in addition to fellowships through Kundiman, The Watering Hole, and the Kresge Foundation. His work has appeared in Vinyl Poetry, Lit Hub, Mizna, and Button Poetry, among others. Luthun’s first collection, How The Water Holds Me, was awarded Editors’ Selection by Bull City Press.