Artist: Huda Dib, Flyers for Falastin

I will never forget how my teacher
illuminated my darkest paths.
She glimpsed the spark within me,
struggling to shine through oceans of dust.
Amid a flood of horrifying days,
she reminded me, “Your life matters.”

Three days after the skies turned red
and the nights drowned in dust,
a letter slipped through the chaos,
a message that floodlit my heart and mind:
 “You won the award.”

The noise outside suddenly faded away;
it felt like a world with no wailing.
“Khaled, you have made it!” she wrote.
“You must cradle your dream.
Your life is your story.”

Again and again, she leads me out of doubt’s abyss,
showing me how to move in the dark,
to believe in myself.
She is not only a teacher
but a lantern lighting my way.