In lieu of flowers,
point to the graves 
and witness it

In lieu of flowers:
Do the work.
Continue the fight.
Attend the protest.
Believe women.
Fire the racist cops.
Hold power accountable.
Share the words.

Write the stories.

Read the poem

I had seen a few poems with lines that really hit hard, and was struggling with how to share them or incorporate their message into my “Things I’m reading” emails or otherwise share them.

I came across a few of these poems a second time over a day or two and I realized they were connected by being about death. Many were about Gaza, because despite the attempts to divert attention to other wars, other ethnic cleansing, even other attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza is still the scene of an ongoing genocide. A genocide of bombings, a genocide of snipers’ bullets, a genocide of intentional starvation (including by civilians), a genocide of deprivation of healthcare (including by civilians). And what is genocide good for if not inspiring a lot of poems about death.

This poem is not a Cento as I thought it was important to inject my own thoughts, and my own lines. And at the time I didn’t know a cento was a thing. I don’t remember how the phrase “in lieu of flowers” popped in there, but it is a phrase associated uniquely with death. It’s also a push back on a funny practice of sending someone who’s just experienced a death something that, famously, dies. Quickly and visibly.

But many of these poems about death speak of the lack of visibility for that death. Or more specifically they try to raise the visibility, the salience of these victims.

Victims of violence, victims of complicity, victims of silence.

It’s not easy to bend the arc, not because it’s heavy, but because it’s slippery, coated in blood drawn by whiteness, tears shed in anguish, never joy

Arc by me - July 2025