we are not numbers
emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights
Grief crept into me / seeping deep into my heart / into every corner of my being.
Painting (oil on fiberboard, 70 × 100 cm): Sana Saleh
Grief crept into me,
seeping deep into my heart,
into every corner of my being.
My aching heart refused to obey reason.
It surrendered to the weight of loss,
drowning me in sorrow, betrayal,
a deadly silence,
dragging me back to places
that no longer exist.
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of poetic fragments written to accompany paintings intended as testimony to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It follows the first poetic fragment, The birth.
The artist says, “They are poems written not to clarify each painting but to echo it. I hope these pairings offer an opening into the world that no longer exists, into the ruins of home, and into the fragile thread of life that art still dares to carry.”
