We watch through fish-eye lenses
The up-down rhythm of your ships
In the 'red zone'. You say
It should be called orange.
Sunlight refracts off international waters
But the danger on the horizon is approaching.
The footage is giving me motion sickness,
As I turn my eyes away for now.
The shushing, sloshing, slapping of waves
Against the hull. The wood creaks.
The wind is so loud, it is static through my speakers
And there is a chittering that sounds like birds,
Flying above, flying like the red-white-green
Flag on your mast in the breeze.
That flag, flying beside others:
Familia Madeira, Portugal. Alma, Britain.
I hear distorted conversations,
Too muffled to discern, taking place
Aboard the boats. You could be speaking
In any language: English, Spanish, Arabic.
Whatever works. We, the witnesses,
Intersperse our own tongues amongst the English
We use out of convenience to exchange information.
We share our own flags and locations
So all the world knows that the world is bearing witness.
Türkiye. Aotearoa. So-called Australia. France.
The US. The UK. Canada. Israel.
As one part of the world sleeps, the other awakens.
We bear witness to the forty-four ships in your flotilla
As you leave your envoys behind.
The dockworkers in Genoa bearing witness
To the Italian envoy urging you to abort,
Ready to strike and shut down if need be.
The Colombian president calling for international law
As two of his citizens, two amongst your hundreds,
Traverse the sea, reaching not for safe harbour
But for a harbour where your cargo is in safer hands
Than the hands of the plunderers blockading aid.
Sumud, you are reaching out with all our hands
Because Palestine is begging the world to act,
And as you say ā 'when governments fail,
Ships set sail.' Reaching out to Rafah,
Jenin, Khan Younis, Nuseirat. We bear witness.
We bear witness to the convoys converging
From Italy, Spain, Greece, Tunis,
Civilian ships sailing whilst naval ships look on.
People acting whilst governments look on
And abandon civillians in an open-air prison.
Sumud, may your aid reach the two million
In need. May it do some good.
Because we cannot bear to stand idly by
In a genocide. We bear witness to their crimes.
We bear witness as unwanted pop music blares
Through your radio speakers ā isn't the interference alone
A crime in itself already? We bear witness
As radio crackles through our speakers
ā 'did you hear mayday too?'
We bear witness as long as we can
ā 'we are ready to throw our phones overboard.'
Sumud, as you traverse the waves,
We wave that red-white-green
Flag. We shout through the streets.
We bombard it across your screens:
In our thousands, in our millions,
From the river to the sea,