More Poems for Palestine

OORI AGAH 우리 아가

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe;
and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this
may be incapable of morality.”
~ James Baldwin

even before the roosters crow
    they come searching
        the lost palestinian children
they cross oceans and countless time zones
    crying for their mothers
        reaching out for their fathers
they find the grandmothers
    awake already
        sitting up in bed
here, we say
    i have made
        a space for you        
take this pillow
    drink this water
        i have been waiting for you
suddenly i can understand arabic
    i dust the rubble off their clothes
        run my fingers through their ashy hair
i say yes
         yes
        you are safe now
exhausted from their long journey
    one child tucks under my arm
        another nestles at my back
soon we are three and four deep
    one after another
        in my crowded narrow bed
even my own mother
    and grandmother
        join me in our soft expansive nest
they chant
    자장 자장 우리 아가 jajang jajang oori agah
        제도 잔다 우리 아가 jeh do jandda oori agah*           
over and over again
    until we all fall  
            asleep


* Korean folk lullaby: 자장 자장 우리 아기/ 꼬꼬 닭아 우지마라/ 우리 아기 잠을 깰라/ 멍멍 개야 짖지마라/ 자장 자장 잘도 잔다.