The World I Live In : Reflections on Gaza

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Far beyond the rusted iron bars

On the window of my home
I see a world that is utopia to me
It watches its children grow up in peace
And sees them laugh
And sees them live
That world beyond is a bubble to me
That has perfect harmony
And color
And life
That world to me is a fairy tale
That exists for me
As fairy tales do
In books
And stories
And fables

 

The world I live in is no fable
Or utopia
Or fairy tale
The world I live in is a world
That functions
On one day to the next,
One breath to another and
One heartbeat to the second basis.
I’ve heard that the utopian world
Beyond my borders
Is a coveted one

child-gaza-dead.jpgBut I have no time to remonstrate
Or passion to envy
Or desire to desire
Any longer
I buried my children in Gaza today

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  • http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

    Touching mashallah.

    I’d like to point to this article on BBC, an exchange between a Palestinian and Israeli woman. Says a lot.

    BBC Interaction H/T KashifN

  • fama

    Very well written and a wake up call for all human race.

  • Esra Tasneem A

    Touching poem Irum .
    It also brings back to me the recent memories of the Qana Massacre during Israel’s war in Lebanon where so many children got killed .
    I’d like to thank Amad for drawing our attention to the article on BBC Interaction . Like Amad says : it says a lot .

  • http://prayinjamat.com AbuAbdAllah, the Houstonian

    bismillah. jazak Allah khayr Amad for that article link. WOW!! talk about a person who was so sure of her own victim complex. comparing the two letters shows that the arrogance of most israelis really is built on a premise of shutting their eyes and ears to anyone’s pain other than their own. and the decorum that the Filistini sister displayed in her reply could teach boatloads to Muslims everywhere, mashaAllah.

    i hoped to find any kind of follow-up to that piece — to see how the israeli replied. but i did not find one.

    what i did find was a piece about israel’s haredim community. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7553860.stm

    amazing just how respectfully the article was written. while it mentions that secular jews find haredim gender roles “primitive,” note that even here it makes clear that the divide is between the religious and the secular. the article could have been just as accurate and said “most” jews, but instead it calls the majority secular. a stark contrast to how Muslims with similarly conservative views are almost universally branded as extremists.

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  • mulsimah

    jazakAllahukair for the poems and links