My mother left me so suddenly, so I must say these words in a poem.

When the news is too sad to bear, the questions come nonstop in my mind: Why?

“At night, an aching absence awakens me. That burning won’t leave me alone.” The hole I feel is the gap left by my father.

Today, my sweet Aunt Ahlam, you excused yourself from this world.

The Israeli blockade on Gaza affects even the rituals around death and love–preventing unification at the most precious of times.