Artist: Altaieb Nassar, Flyers for Falastin

Sentinel of a wounded land,
Alone you stand, your head unbowed.
Let those who abandoned us forget their flame.
Yours still rages, fierce and proud.

The rubble speaks in ashes and bone,
Of lullabies cut short, of names unknown.
But you rise, once more,
Sentinel of ash and flame,
With the olive branch,
And the rebel’s vow in hand.

You, shrouded in the red of courage,
O dearest martyr, you fell, so we remain.
On Gaza’s shore, you held the line,
And burned a path through dust and chain.

Toward Akka, where empires broke,
Toward Jerusalem, where a dove will rise
to proclaim a homeland
Between two bullets.

Let not the green branch fall from my hand.
It is my pain.
It is my flame.