Christian Paige

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Palestine

Imagine Ruston in rubble
The dome reduced to the memories of our last collective celebration
Counting the population of every comprehensive high school for a report
Calling children casualties
Mourning like we do for lives taken to soon
Imagine watching the sky
Not for sunsets
Or a break in the clouds
But to know if today might be your last
Imagine the world arguing
Pro
Anti
While you consider life or death
Making monoliths of condemnable actions

Last night I had a nightmare
That bombs were dropping on Tacoma
That last names that have called this soil home for decades
Were erased 
From elder to infant
And a poet was trying to find the right combination of words to humanize us
In a place that voted for our destruction to continue
Imagine wanting children in Fircrest to live 
being a political stance
Would you ask the world to pray for them?
Ask the alliances to cease violence
Or has the strand of humanity that connects us been broken

I woke up
And saw the sky
Unable to shake the feeling
Wondered whose prayers
God would prioritize
And asked if children
Could see the Sun again

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“‘Palestine’ is a poem birthed from a place of not having perfect words, but knowing something must be said. Terrible acts are easy to overlook if you keep them at a distance. This poem is an attempt at making what is happening in the world, both local and immediate to people from my city. It is not perfect, but it is not silence.” —Christian Paige

Christian Paige is multi-disciplinary artist from Tacoma, Washington. Paige writes from a place of question. Not claiming to know the answers, but always interested in asking the right one. Paige served as Tacoma’s Poet Laureate (2023-2025), has appeared on stages across the United States, and still believes there is no place like home.