From death to death, we waver.
From fear to fear, we live.
They told us we should coexist.
We are.

To them, we are heroes
who can fight evil
and seldom hold the burden of the whole world,
to shed a rainbow all over it
with our sacrifices
because we are patient,
mighty heroes handling the worst of the worst.

We should die so they live, they secretly wish.
We should fear so they enjoy,
pretending they’re not, they are.

They dance upon our flesh,
upon our blood, upon our limbs.
We should coexist.
Why?

“We are heroes.”
But are we?
Or Satan already eats from our flesh
till no “hero” exists
Genocide kills us by all means:
Famine, grief, cold, heat, pollution, illness
and, of course, airstrikes.

We do coexist.
But do we live?
We sigh instead of breathe,
mourn instead of laugh,
tear instead of wash,
lose instead of gain,
Yes, we “coexist.”

Haneen Alisawi is a writer based in the Gaza Strip.

Tags

• poetry
• poem
• eiGazaDispatches

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