Beirut Battles

By Marion Panizzon

remembering the 2020 blast

 

Bombs rattle Beirut

Apples battle their fruit

The river rocks its bed

August disowns its dead

 

Blood spills over Beirut

Eyes fall out of their sockets

Rockets explode over the dockets

Granaries leak their wheat

August, turn down your heat

 

Butter my bread, Beirut

Break your necks, stillborn beliefs

Bring on the cosmopolitan feel

Blindfold our terror, Corniche

August, stand by your leash

 

Ballooning in debt, Beirut wept

Grapple with the diplomats

Displace the automats

Heating up fears, still the bills

August pastime means to kill

END


Author Bio: Marion is a refugee lawyer with a background as an editorial and research assistant. She grew up bilingual in French and German and spent over four years living and working in different US-cities. She teaches English to Syrian refugees in the Azraq Camp in Jordan. She cultivates a sense of urgency in her verse by drawing from Latin linguistics. Her style uses alliterations amply, to sharpen the act of transgression. Marion's poetry has appeared in Tiny Seeds Literary Journal, Morphrog21, In Parentheses, Sommergras.