The ant wishes she could build her home/ at the top of a tall tree/ so no one would mistake it / as a tunnel for Hamas.
She will spend time again / with her family without seeing the shadow / of their death reflected on the curtains.
Today, Essa welcomes Ouda / at the door of Jannah.
Migrant, refugee, displaced / my ID bears brutal chapters / I did not choose to write
For Palestine, gaze upon destiny’s tree / This testimony is about all of you, not only me…
What were my wishes for the new year? / What were my grandfather’s wishes in 1949 / after the Nakba?
You asked me to undress / I took off my shirt / Wasn’t that enough?
This year, Santa chose to enter Gaza / Amid the bombing, the fractured homes / Blown storefronts, shattered clinics….
In my Gaza, a scholar rests / a poet’s voice, now stilled, but blessed.
You died / … / But I live to tell your story /
the tale of how we met.
My friend was neither God / nor prophet, but a rebel soul / and humorist, like Jesus
I yearn for a past life / before the world turned dark.
