Two steps, one, two.
His eyes stare, mine too.
No steps left, I swallow. We meet.
What will follow?

His silence fills the air.
Eye to eye, head to head,
I wait. My wrinkled hands shake.
The beast of death is here.

He steps over my leg,
and smells my skin.
His nose touches my neck.
One, two … ten.

His tongue licks my face,
one, two … Then, he growls
and attacks. He feasts,
as armed soldiers stand around.

In his teeth, I see my flesh.
And I, bleeding and facing
him alone, cry out
on seeing my bone.

Editor’s note: Read Al Jazeera’s account of Israeli soldiers siccing a dog on an elderly Palestinian woman inside her home in June 2024.