Poems for Gaza

i)

Dear Gaza
When this is over I will come to Beit Lahia and help Mosab plant strawberries for Refaat. I will bring watermelon seeds in embroidered pouches for the children. They need the distraction. I will clear ash from the stumps of smoking olive trees. We’ll set up an easel there. I will buy paints in memory of Heba. Already there are new shoots under rubble. Soon. Gaza. Soon.

ii)

Once they had homes – Jabalia, Rafah, Khan Yunis.
Once they had names – Hisham, Refaat Samar, Lubna.
Once they had families – Ommi, Baba, Seedo, Sitti.
Once they had jobs – Scholar, Poet, Gardener.
Once they had poetry, olive trees, children – once they were more than numbers.

iii)

You say the pictures aren’t real
Those children climbed under rubble
Played dead for a photograph.
That man, girl, baby, doctor – not real.

I want you to be right.
I want Gaza to unbomb herself
Unkill her children
Unearth her houses
Undo her genocide.

I want to say those pictures aren’t real.