The Electronic Intifada 20 September 2014
The Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City on 18 September.
ActiveStillsINSIDE OUT
For Gaza, July 2014
people inside out
on the streets in their loved ones’
arms people screaming
in football stadiums
my friend’s mom in Gaza is cheering
for Brazil and Holland
all that orange
burning almost
a sunrise all that
smoke
there’s an old woman
who dies holding
her spoon waiting
for iftar
which comes but so do
the rockets
and the news
Brazil loses to Germany 7-1
ABC News confuses Israel and Palestine
the whole dichotomy
occupied/
occupier inside
out
out
Holland loses
a girl not yet
one
wrapped in a flag
flags wrapped
around cars necks shoulders heads
in Gaza God
is the eyes
of a little doll kicked
among the rubble
eyes follow a ball
kicked in mid-air
a roof collapses
houses inside out
one bride postpones
her wedding
the game goes into
extra time
shelters there are no shelters
shield yourself with
your hands your voice
i haven’t slept since
yesterday writes Anas go ahead
and bombard july 13th
he dies the next day
a player kisses a trophy
his wife his son
a mother
kisses a dead child
grief inside out
is resistance
the crowds wave
at the victorious team
a whole family stands
on the roof waving
at the enemy’s planes
Gaza mothers soothe their kids
Found poem for Gaza, based on an article in Baraka Bits
by telling them fireworks are beautiful
be brave and laugh it’s the TV I am going to turn it off
when there is bombing I hug them and cry
in one room without windows playing cooking watching
cartoon movies on TV if there is electricity
my oldest Ahmed he’s old enough to understand
not fireworks or the neighbors cleaning the rug
MAYSAM
Ten-year-old Maysam from Gaza speaks
in English on YouTube, says, I’m still
alive and I’m not
terrorist. She smiles,
recites her lines in a sing-song manner
as if rehearsing for a school play
with the word kill in it,
shakes her head on the word not,
waves on hello! and bye!
as if waving to her mother
who is watching in the audience,
as if she could persuade
young Israeli women who tweet
stinking Arabs may you
die amen.
Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet whose poetry collection, titled To Live in Autumn (Backwaters Press, 2014), won the 2013 Backwaters Prize. Follow her on Twitter: @zeinabeck or on Facebook.
