Poems For Palestine
Genocide
Gaping holes
Tortured souls
Singed hair, blank stare
Trembling heart
Faces filled with fear.
Drones and death
Cadavers and concrete
Livor mortis and phosphorus flares
Bombs and battery
From flesh-burning cannibals.
Vultures circle and hesitate
Flesh-eating poisoned with hate
Bullets and armory
Are food and water
and shelter, the skies domed
in darkness and fiery fire.
Don’t Speak
Do not silence our voices
Eradicate and berate us
We are the seeds
Of the Watermelon and the Cactus.
Where one represents our colors
The other is our resilience.
You cannot kill what your hatred spills
Welcomed into our bosom
You tore our fetuses’
Our Nakba and your hasbara
Genocide and infanticide
You cannot hide
Those lifeless eyes
Murdered in concentration camps!
Now it’s one bullet from settlers
A hail from the butchers
A thousand dreams in tatters
Homes sullied; children vilified
Young men neutralised
Women raped and tainted
Mouths taped…we must not speak!
Men brutalised, institutionalised
And mentally paralysed
When you call yourself a democracy
In colonial kakistocracy
With partners in crime bureaucracy
And…the world is an imprisoned plutocracy.
Still, I Rise
My spirit cannot be broken
The might of Salahuddin
The intellect of Memet
The courage of Rashideens
The wisdom of Faisel
Still, I rise …
Within me is the resilience of Aqsa
The Star of Bethlehem
The steadfastness of the olives
And the timelessness between the river and the sea.
Zephyrs carry our ancestral names
The sand, our bloodied corpses
Bricks are etched with our names
Our Culture is a testimony to our legacy
Still, I rise …
My soul sings the praises of Oneness
My heart and life are in His hands
Through calloused feet
Hands tied …
Tongue-tied…
Apartheid …. Still, I rise …
Above the haloed sunsets
and picturesque sunrise
as the circle of life continues
Still, I rise …
FIONA KHAN
FIONA KHAN is an internationally published and award-winning author, environmentalist and poet. She is a social entrepreneur and a Ph.D. candidate in Science and Technology Education. Fiona is the founder and CEO of the Global Forum 4 Literacy and she is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for Literacy and Humanity.
Beyond The River Beyond The Sea 