we are not numbers
emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights
Between hunger and suffering, a furious rage was born / It scorched my soul, burning through every part of my being.
Painting (oil on wood, 60×100 cm): Sara Saleh
Between hunger and suffering, a furious rage was born.
It scorched my soul, burning through every part of my being.
It seared the final traces of a childhood stolen, never to return.
Within me, a fire was forced into existence, uninvited, unrelenting.
A rage no speech can calm,
no false peace treaty can silence,
no hollow apology can soothe.
Only the dirge of bullets echoing through our alley,
only the blood of our occupier
can lull it to rest.
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of poetic fragments written to accompany paintings intended as testimony to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
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.”
