the blueshift journal

Every father in my family
        has a spot in every living room
                that is claimed without speaking.

The same goes for television channels.
        These decisions stay static for years,
                but they change sometimes.

I asked my father the other day
        why he started watching Russia Today.
                I ask this as the newscaster says something

about Aleppo being “liberated”. My father says
        he can’t trust what Americans say anymore.
                Gedo used to watch Al-Jazeera, but that was before

the “Revolution”. Last summer, I walked in on him
        and Teita watching a pirated WWE channel,
                with Arabic commentary. I wondered why he spends

the little free time he has with these blond men, with their long
        sweaty hair and oily oversized bodies. I watch them dance
                across their rings, throwing metal chairs, quick tantrums, full words.

I argued with Teita for about five minutes
        about whether or not the fighting was real. Of course
                it is, she hastily said.

Look at all that
        blood. There’s so much
               blood.