1
After 48 years as a refugee
my father visits cities in the Palestine
of his memories. He gathers a small stone
from each one to take to his home
in diaspora.
2
On a spring day
Virginia Woolf fills her pockets
with stones. She resolves to walk
deep into the river to drown.
Her body is found three weeks later.
3
In Hades
Sisyphus pushes a massive boulder
uphill, labor that consumes his days.
As it nears the top
he knows he will watch it
roll back down again.
4
A teen in Gaza faces an Israeli tank.
Poised to lob a fist-sized rock
at the steel Goliath,
he strikes then runs toward the rubble
to replenish his arsenal.
5
The Buddha statue
on mountains, by rivers,
in cities, forests, and fields,
is chiseled from one large rock,
honed and shined.
Legs in double lotus position,
the ascetic sits among flowers
in meditation, an abiding witness
to our woes.
Zeina Azzam
Zeina Azzam is a Palestinian American poet, writer, editor, community activist, and the poet laureate of Alexandria, Virginia, for 2022-25. She is the daughter of Palestinian refugees who eventually settled in Beirut, where she lived until ten years old. Zeina’s full-length poetry collection, Some Things Never Leave You, was published in 2023 and her chapbook, Bayna Bayna, In-Between, in 2021. Her poetry also appears in webzines, journals, edited volumes, and anthologies. She has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize.