#3 I SEE YOU when your Big Drip Dripping — Community, Solidarity, Love

JP/EN

 

Let me tell you about

The George Floyd Memorial^* in Gaza

The man whose life and death sparked a resurgence of love

of life of thought and art and humanity in a time of loneliness and seeming disconnection

The pandemic which shattered preconceived fallacies of comfort and okayness in this capitalist system

Where were all begging and pleading with Allah (God) to let us win win win

To let us grind grind grind

Get the bag while we rest it on the backs of our families in the global south

Who live with so much happiness our eyes characterized as misery

We define ourselves by these shiny objects that flash and bling diamonds and gold

Our drip dripping blood of extraction from mines where Africans die of heat and exhaustion in a land that is prosperous

So wealthy they decided to conquer it all and in that they convinced us that without them we would fall

Now we’re choking from the water drip dripping contaminated by our own blood

because we murder each other when all we really needed was to hug

 

You see my sisters and I smile at each other every day

Drip dripping that loving happiness pouring out from our cups sometimes empty sometimes overflowing we pour into each other

Never forgetting to say Mashallah (God has willed it)

And Alhamdullillah (praise be to God)

For the blessing of looking to your sister and being able to exclaim

Ana bahebek (I love you)

On a warm summer day

And my friends empowered with their languages, love and cultures

Ojibwe, Cree, Métis all around Turtle Island and more

When they say “Eid Mubarak”(Happy Eid)  and “Salaam Aleikum” (peace be upon you)

it warms my heart to the core

See George Floyd in Falestine is more than just a beam of light in a dark world

It is solidarity and love embodied and freedom for all people by all people

Shea butter black soap my life has been a movie and this poem is the sequel

 

In small acts of revolution I am dedicated to ending every phone call and conversation with

“I love you” “Be safe OK”

“Take care of yourself”

“Ma3 al salamah (leave with safety)”

Leave on your journey with the peace brought by the distance needed to remember who you were before your trauma made and shaped you

You see mine it metamorphosized into a cancer growing bigger and bigger inside my body

It’s weight on my shoulders like a boulder I chip away at it affirming to myself

“I trust that I am on the right path”

“I am creatively inspired by the world around me”

“I am powerful, safe and secure. All is well”

 

My body tattooed words and images of love to grieve and give me something beautiful to see

Sometimes when I look in the mirror I am so filled with ecstasy

Drip dripping that revolution is me loving me

In and all around me floating and blooming life, atoms, molecules, grains, a cell, culture, community, tradition, resistance, love, I SEE YOU.

That George Floyd Memorial in Philistine found me the peace that distance brings

Echoed Hampton and said “I am a revolutionary!”

With a heart so big that it bleeds solidarity

Because it’s more than just a word

But a promise for a future illuminated with possibility

The imagination of a dunya (world) shaped by at the bare minimum stability….

 

Survival mode fight or flight living in that trance is exhausting

The type of life that will run you straight into your coffin

Drip dripping diamonds and water are the same to me

My richness is life and that’s on eternity

 

 

About the Author

Farah Talaat is an Egyptian poet, media host, event planner, womanist and youth/community worker. Farah embodies liberatory, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive practices in her role as a youth leader. As a Solidarity Specialist, she facilitates a number of programs & workshops that embed and explore roots of solidarity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth. Farah is also the co-founder WIISININ, an organization dedicated to addressing food insecurity through embracing global Indigenous food systems. Farah dreams of a world abounding in liberation for all oppressed peoples and has a deep passion for solidarity, food security, community wellness and creative writing as pathways for healing and resistance. Follow her on Instagram @pharaohhhhtt!

About I SEE YOU

Rooted in Toronto’s BIPOC communities, I SEE YOU is an art project to collectively explore the meaning and importance of acknowledgment through creative writing and portraits. Read the project statement here.

 

(Copyedited by Ashendri Picon)

 

* You can watch the mural in this video