Crouched over the earth the child draws lines with a stick as the ancestors had done. A second child, more cautious, more weighted by unease — a conscience, possibly — watches on. The first child divides the soil cleanly. A clean disregard. “This is where I’ll build the house.” A school project, all the children are called to build a house in miniature. “But what about the ants?” asks the second child, and points a pale finger at dark scrambling bodies. The first child looks up: “They’re ants.”
p.s the phrase ‘the politics of want’ is taken from Orbital by Samantha Harvey
p.p.s whilst this is not solely about the president, I did write this in direct response to the president
p.p.p.s Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha is a devastating and vital collection by a Gazan poet — I am not much of a poetry reader but this should be on every shelf