INSURGENCY
DUJIE TAHAT
Let freedom ring
[loud enough that they don’t ask
what comes next. This]
sweet land
[so lush with all its color is nothing like]
my country [the] land
where my fathers died
[is not as fertile as it once was.
To be honest, a convert’s faith is
what makes]
the pilgrim’s pride
[restless, relentless—search
all the time for a]
land of
[milk and honey.]
From every mountainside
[an unexplained explosion.
A mother wails in the highest frequency]
of liberty
[that can be heard
ringing in my ears
one last time. Her last
remaining child pulls at her hem as if to say]
’tis of thee
[sticky hands waving recklessly]
of thee I sing.
Listen to "Toccata in D minor, op. 11" by Sergei Prokofiev, selected to accompany Dujie's work, below:
DUJIE TAHAT is a Filipino-Jordanian immigrant living in Washington state. They are the author of Here I Am O My God, selected for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship, and Salat, winner of the Tupelo Press Sunken Garden Chapbook Award. Along with Gabrielle Bates and Luther Hughes, they cohost The Poet Salon podcast.