For the 500th Dead Palestinian, Istisam Bozieh is by far my favorite poem of Nye’s thus far. This poem is extremely upfront and in your face, starting with the title. The reader has a clear understanding of what this poem is going to be about, yet there is still a great sense of surprise as the reader learns about Istisam.
The first stanza is the most upfront of the three. Here the reader learns about Istiam; a thirteen year old whose dream of becoming a doctor was cut short when murdered. The reader is also briefly introduced to the fact that this event bothers Nye here: “our sleep flounders, our sleep tugs the cord of your name.” I find the imagery in this stanza very intense. In lines 4 and 5, Nye says “ . . . . .for staring through the window of a gun barrel . . .” This a very tangible image that stays in the readers memory while reading the rest of the poem. This stanza closes by talking of how Istisam wanted to be a doctor, setting the reader up for the next stanza by forcing the reader to think about this individual as a child with dreams and aspirations.
The second stanza is where Nye really makes her emotional appeal. Nye begins the stanza by discussing pulling this child back from a premature death. The imagery becomes more intense as the poem continues. Nye acknowledges this is something she has thought about by saying it could have been her. The reader has gotten to know Nye through the course of the book and it really puts life into perspective when she does this. She acknowledges one reason she is alive is because of her geographic location. Lines three through six in the second stanza give the reader some perspective on what school and life are like for children in Palestine. “I might have been dead too, for something simple like staring or shouting what was true and getting kicked out of school.” These lines tell the reader that schools are seen as a safe haven, but the children must be very careful. Students must not disrupt the way of life that is established and accepted or else there will be severe consequences. Nye ends this stanza very majestically and child like, bringing a sense of innocence back to the poem by saying “I wandered stony afternoons owning all their vastness.” I think that Nye’s goal was to bring the reader back to when s/he was thirteen. All I could think about while I read this was how much hope I had when I was that age and the sense of freedom that life seemed to have.
Nye ends the poem with a very short third stanza. Stanza one had seven lines and stanza two had eight lines, while stanza three only has five. It seems like Nye is ending the poem short just as Ibtisam’s life was ended short. There are two very distinctive and different sentences in this stanza. “Now I would give them to you, guilty, you, not me.” All though there is a sense of sadness with this sentence, I feel like there is a sense of hope as well. By saying this, Nye is acknowledging that she has a life and that she is blessed and lucky. The sense of hope and compassion that is conveyed by saying her saying “ I would give them to you,” is overwhelming to me, because I see Nye writing this as a child or adolescent and that speaks to her character and integrity. The second sentence and last sentence of the stanza and poem is overwhelmingly sad. Nye wants people to be angry and upset over this tragedy, but does not think that people appreciate it for what it is worth, “Throwing this ragged grief into the street. . . .” Instead of people crying out with outrage over this, these are simply stories collecting on her desk.
For me, the theme of this poem guilt and it is something that I can relate to. My dad was in the Army for twenty-five years. September 11, 2001 happened and my dad deployed to Afghanistan in the beginning of November. He did five essentially consecutive deployments and made it home alive. I am lucky, thankful, grateful, and about one million other words.
At the same time, I feel guilty. Many brats lost a mom or a dad, and my heart breaks for them every single day. Family members of people in the military are by far the strongest people I have ever met and they do not get nearly enough credit or support as they need and deserve. My biggest fear for four and half years is their reality and it makes me sick to think about. I can relate to the guilt that Nye feels, because it is something I deal with everyday.
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