Ode to the Wallrunners of Gaza
@
you hover o
ver like a sun o
ver
found
ation
re mains
un ion of flesh & air
h air
flared f reed
as if, by mast
ering a
man
gled wall
you mystery
a fall
@
never mind
Mo’s missing
foot up
he leaps
(how to wri te a body
& blot
the dr
one)
@
sun undered
by tumble & scud
gambol er
tumble r
from ru to ru
you trace a path w here
no path
flanged
@
among the ceme tery
stones you
flip
who among the dead would
not want
a moment
of re
lease &
temp monu
, reaching
through hell & heave
n
@
the stub
born grasp
of grav
lev ity ity
li ght
there is no spirit
body hasn’t rent
li ght
no
there is no body
spirit can’t send
li ght
o
ver
the
wall
Author’s Note
“Ode to the Wallrunners of Gaza” is an homage to the Gazawis in Palestine who choose to make of their land, including the blasted landscape of buildings bombed by Israel, a place from which to fly—that walls would be seen not as limits, but as obstacles to navigate. The sport of Parkour involves moving swiftly through an environment and sometimes using acrobatics to travel from one point to the next. Ahmad Matar began practicing Parkour in 2005 and helped found the Wallrunners Parkour Academy in Gaza, a non-profit, in 2020. In 2022, a play called Exit Parkour in Sweden featured Ahmad playing himself. In a 2024 Al-Jazeera video, Najem Ahmar explains, “We’ve been practicing this sport for many years. We train in public places, on even ground and on sand dunes. When the war broke out, we began to train on top of the ruins of bombarded neighborhoods. It’s a message to the world that our resolve to live is stronger than ever and also to show the extent of the destruction caused by Israeli bombs.”
Discussion Questions
- How does the practice of Parkour challenge stereotypes of people enduring a genocide?
- How does Parkour change the way we see the natural and built worlds in Gaza?
- How is Parkour, as practiced in Gaza, not only a sport, but also a form of art and storytelling about Palestinian life?