permissible land animals by Dennis Andrew S. Aguinaldo

A poem on Israeli-Palestinian violence based on the Gaza Strip wiki page.

First published in Softblow in November 2016.

​From the author:

“permissible land animals” cuts up the Gaza Strip wiki page while closely following the 2015–2016 spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence. I hold this old poem like a film of ruined acetate against the current state of the wiki page and find the indelible, words such as “olive-wood carvings” and “white phosphorus”—as legible now as when Softblow published the poem eight Novembers ago.

Rockets still populate the page, but “rocket hit his home” is gone. “Burning” moved from the main text to the footnotes.

No more “Kite-flying.”

1
Strip (film / -controlled borders and limited
Kite-flying event on

non-Member Observer / of self-
in the world, and is overcrowded / acquired

The length of the blade is twice the width of the / neck.
the demarcation line was not to be

Bank, creating two separate / lethal incidents
powers after the First / line between

and administered it through a
in a dramatic decrease / stretching back to biblical times
-Day War, to the / needed]

to sink into the sea, but that won’t / fence
civilians, many of them perpetrated by suicide
used for cargo, closed down

2
Strip.” “Therefore,
Strip in

control over the crossings in and out of

cameras. / oversight,
supervision.[26] Goods were also
Accords

cut off, although some of that
rocket hit his home.

out between the factions.[37] Interior
a moderate civil / behavior by both
spread in

before my eyes,
women and children in a burning / lot in my years
If the animal is ill or injured, it is no longer considered

responded by declaring a state
through tunnels. / newspapers,
law by progressively removing
seven people, after / other essentials

3
annexing
creating / the population. Under the
obligations of an Occupying / spokesman for
textiles, soap, olive-wood carvings, and mother-of-
small-scale

citrus, vegetables, Halal beef, and dairy
absolutely no nicks or unevenness. The
cut flowers,

has been one of chronic need, de-
relaxation on restrictions in
turmoil and
new forms of agriculture.

his/her finger, he/she would feel no pain.

Roots, and plans were made in
white phosphorus

Dennis Andrew S. Aguinaldo works at the Department of Humanities of the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Here, he helped institute courses on young adult narratives and creative nonfiction. His work appears in online journals, such as in the closing issues of Otoliths and Gnarled Oak.

Twitter/X: @dsaguinaldo Instagram: @uplb.aguinaldo

Facebook: @uplb.aguinaldo

If you’d like to support the author, you can purchase his book Bukod sa Maliliit na Hayop here.

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