1.    what warrants a war?                      a.    beauty (my dad said this)my grandparents flee the beauty. it’s 1948. they are on foot until they reach the refugeecamp in aleppo and then they meet. they have five children and they’re all born stateless.myself and most of my cousins are born stateless too refugees by inheritance. we now havefive nationalities between us passports that allow us to move and move and move againsome more freely than others. none of us have palestinian citizenship. my grandfather fledthe living in 2015 my grandmother in 2021 they were my last bloodline that belonged topalestine on paper.         2.   nothing ever really stops existing                      a.   this means that nothing ever really stops happening                                    i.   this means that even when you are not in the right place at the                                          right time, you’ll still be there                                                    ١. you are always therei can’t remember jericho all that wellbut i remember the windows                                       in houses                                       in rocks                                       in mountains        i remember the rocks        i remember the rock flour                                   the sandin 1948 the UN general assembly passes a resolution they say any palestinian refugees whowant to return to their homes should be permitted to do so. they also mention money theysay that compensation must be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and forthe loss of or damage to property. my great grandmother zahra owns one hundred dunamsof land in jish in palestine and on it: groves of olive trees. her sons flee but she stays with thebeauty and waits for her sons to come back.               i        am        in      a      box          now               and the box is a yellow dumpster               on        jamal abdel nasser     street               i        am          a            cattle       egret               in            a         yellow        dumpster               on        jamal abdel nasser     street               i         am         a           water          bird               and    jenin   is   forty    kilometres               from                                                 water               in        either                           directioni am in front of a mirror. and by that i mean i am the cattle egret in the yellow dumpster and iam also a passenger in a black minivan looking at the cattle egret in the yellow dumpster. soas a promise not to forget and because i am young and enjoy metaphors, i ink the cattleegret on my right leg forever and say when i move you move and again i make a promise. iwill lead the bird back to water. but instead i spend one year deciding not to go anywhereand the next two governmentally prohibited from going anywhere.         3.   what’s a box?                        a.   a cage for things that aren’t living                                      i.     a closet                                      ii.    a silo                                      iii.   the skin of an onion                                      iv.    a coffin                        b.   four walls a floor and a ceiling                        c.   something that stops you from moving                                      i.     a hall of mirrors                                      ii.    a slippery floor                                      iii.   breathlessness