What I Will
by Suheir Hammad
I will not dance to your war drum.
I will not lend my soul nor my bones to your war drum.
I will not dance to your beating.
I know that beat.
It is lifeless.
I know intimately that skin you are hitting.
It was alive once hunted stolen stretched.
I will not dance to your drummed up war.
I will not pop spin beak for you.
I will not hate for you or even hate you.
I will not kill for you.
Especially I will not die for you.
I will not mourn the dead with murder nor suicide.
I will not side with you nor dance to bombs
because everyone else is dancing.
Everyone can be wrong.
Life is a right not collateral or casual.
I will not forget where I come from.
I will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved
near and our chanting will be dancing. Our humming will be drumming.
I will not be played.
I will not lend my name nor my rhythm to your beat.
I will dance and resist and dance and persist and dance.
This heartbeat is louder than death.
Your war drum ain’t louder than this breath.
