THE PRISONS NEXT TIME – A poem by sister Julia Wright
the daughters and sons
of the students
of 1968
have
learned well
the only university course
worth its while:
The Revolution
throughout
the United States
throughout the territories
stolen
from the Indigenous Peoples,
our brave children
looking the mass graves
of Gaza
in the eyes
are building
the only space
worth its while –
Liberation Zones
they are claiming
that their universities
divest
and cease exchanges
with a fascist country
any fascist country
committing genocide
staring the mass graves
in the eye
they uphold
Antigone’s unwritten
law
of humanity
and the right to bury with ancestral rites
those slain
so
it will be the prisons –
the prisons
where guards are recycled
to the Gazas of the world
the prisons
where the slaves of forced labor
produce the munitions
that kill their comrades
freedom fighting
across borders
the prisons
where the captured
undergo Palestine-tested torture
the prisons
where our political prisoners
are hidden from sight
the prisons
where our daughters and sons
from the campuses
are being locked up today
it will be the unliberated prisons’ turn
next time
