You were a witness to a heinous
atrocity of war, a crime against humanity
Wildflowers in open spaces
Wildflowers in closed spaces,
in spaces that have been tampered with
You lost a husband, your children
lost a father, the world lost a poet
I sit in my room and write this poem
I, too, am a witness of crimes against
humanity
You, Palestine, come to me in a dream
You, Gaza, come to me in a dream
You, Rafah, come to me in a dream
You, every slain poet, every dead child,
every monster in war, in life
You every martyr, come to me
You, Refaat Alareer, come to me in a dream
You, Omar Abu Shaweesh , come to me in a dream
You, Yousef Dawas, come to me in a dream
You all come to me
like Hemingway or church
like bananafish
like Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger
John Updike
M. Night Shyamalan’s
over productive imagination
Before I wake up completely
I find that I am losing my voice
That another Palestinian child
is dead, (the body found in a
ditch), that there are more martyrs
today than there were yesterday
Where are all the poets and writers
Ask Refaat Alareer, he knows
Ask, Omar Abu Shaweesh, he knows
Ask, Yousef Dawas, he knows
How painful it is to die young
Even more painful to live with no hope,
to live with no bread, to chase
famine, to survive on dust that’s
to be found in a refugee camp.

*****

[Courtesy of the author]

Link to the Italian translation