by Jazra Khaleed
translated from the Greek by Jason Rigas
7.
twitter was quick to react to a video posted by the associated press
battling enormous waves all morning having lost their bearings
these people are still smiling somehow
their hair unravels deep into the future
to locate and intercept them while they’re still in turkish waters
new dogma anticipates
a well-preserved necropolis
never once deviating from the interception playbook they’ve adopted
standing by as women and children drowned before their eyes
with the help of a slide show high ranking members of the coast guard described how events unfolded on the night of the tragedy
gulet type schooners remain a fantastic option
so they can get to europe before the roads close, a possibility they are well aware of
the screaming and crying touched even the hardest
is someone really forcing them to throw kids on a boat on a cold winter night and drown
if we just let a bunch of sharks loose in the aegean they’d sink their boats for sure
8.
shipwrecks are still a daily occurrence
“asphyxiation” in the north aegean
you will feel like you’ve made it to heaven
new dogma anticipates
techniques for the maritime containment and return of pushbacks
a culture of “aggressive surveillance,” as members of the coast guard themselves describe it
twitter was quick to react to a video posted by the associated press
video depicting crew from two different coast guard vessels firing warning shots at
islands picturesque yet distinct, where visitors experience unforgettable moments even during the shortest of stays
if you did an online poll with the question “should we sink these boats” you’d get a 90% yes response
#antireport #rbnews greek and turkish water pigs sending back #refugeesgr under the watchful eye of @frontex
german coast guard is sending two patrol boats to guard the
honest blood out for blood
if we just let a bunch of sharks loose in the aegean they’d sink their boats for sure
guess what with 200 boats on the bottom and zero refugees coming in you just solved the demographic problem my friend
9.
a mother who lost her three children, the youngest 8 months old and still nursing, and the others 2 and 3 years old
the morgue has filled with corpses
people coming out of the freezing water, some with frozen babies in their arms
the local hospitality and the breathtaking scenery are what memories are made of
turkish instigators claiming that our coast guard is drowning refugees
maybe they should have plopped them into mass graves after the execution
a german frigate nearby transports the commander of the nato fleet
foreigners act like they own the aegean
basking in the locals’ genuine hospitality
yesterday greek water pigs opened fire on two boats each carrying 25 migrants
they shout “you’re fucked, hands up”
#tsiprasert calls for interception not an open invitation, like in 2014
how many dead bodies get you the nobel
injecting a fresh sense of optimism and camaraderie into the greeks’ eternal maritime adventure
with things still being the way they are it’s better to drown in the aegean
* Revolving Doors, a poem in 36 parts, follows, with some deviations, the structure of Nanni Balestrini’s Blackout (Rome: DeriveApprodi, 2001).
A list of sources used in this cut-up and the pattern of their usage is available here; the poet’s introduction to the work is available here.
Barricade is publishing the first 16 poems in the series on our web forum Ramparts throughout the month of August; the full 36-poem sequence will be available as a print zine in September 2024. Revolving Doors will also be published in THE LIGHT THAT BURNS US, an expanded anthology of Khaleed’s work forthcoming from World Poetry Books on October 10. Pre-order at worldpoetrybooks.com.