we are not numbers

emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights

Tag: death

“She was a very kind person. Why did they kill her?”
Can he rewind/Lean in another direction/To dodge the bullet?
Feryal refused to get married many times so that she could be close to her mother and take care of her.
My cousin and her boys were with us, until they weren't, and I had to search for them among the body bags.
It has been two years. Two years of being able to sleep most nights, without waking up to the news that someone I know is dead. But I have not forgotten.
The streets are not quiet for long.
All I have left of my uncle is a memory of a wave and a smile.
I imagine more than remember my father. But I know he had a big heart.
Thakla is a label for the unthinkable, a parent who outlives her child.
My mother once told me I am a "piece of her heart." She has more than that of mine.
When you are Palestinian, you are born and die behind a wall.
Images like this one are seared into my brain.