A review by ditten
Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd

emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

"Here, we know two suns: earth’s friend and white phosphorus.
Here, we know two things: death and the few breaths before it."

This poetry collection is beautiful, raw, and simmering with anger and frustration. 

It depicts lovely memories of the author's grandmother, whom the book is named for, interwoven with everyday colonial violence.  It contrasts life for Americans with life for Palestineans, the Zionist occupation with death, displacement, and annexation of Palestine and its people. 

Not all the poems were equally strong, but nevertheless, the collection feels like a punch to the gut.

"This is why we dance:
Because screaming isn’t free.
Please tell me: 
Why is anger - even anger – a luxury 
to me?” 

"Ramadan​ villages retired singing,
rifles sang instead,
announcing​ declaring
an anticipated empire on the ruins of another."