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CHILDREN
From the Mouths of Babes
Reflecting on the courage of a young girl.
Proud as eagles we will live.
Erect as lions we will die.
~ Young Palestinian girl in the 2002 documentary, Jenin, Jenin
Last night, at Cine Foro Con Palestina (Film Forum in Solidarity with Palestina), I sat with a group of about 25 adults to watch the 2002 documentary, Jenin, Jenin.
Set against the backdrop of the April Battle of this city (22 years ago), the piece is largely comprised of first-hand accounts of the horrors — and hope of a people. I won’t get into the details of the film here because I’d like to give it the full attention it deserves. Still, I wanted to take a few moments to share a poem I wrote to honor the warrior little girl whose voice and face feature prominent in the film, and who I will never forget.
Guerrera
centuries before your birth
seeds of resistance planted
knowing you would be a leader
of a homeland under siege
ancestral breezes to caress your face
an innocence forsaken
preparing your soul
for the liberation of your people
Gracias to this ser de luz. My heart holds hope that she has grown into the fierce young woman her people and the world need.
Gracias for reading.
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Acknowledging the Arawak, the First Peoples of Borikén, on whose unceded lands my work is created. In gratitude for and in honor of our Elders, past, present, and emerging. May my work always unapologetically and boldly uplift our wondrous Indigenous Taíno, Iñeri, and African roots.
