“UNPROVOKED”
By Eman Abukhadra

You started it…
They said
Wait and you shall see
You’ll pay for
What you’ve started!

You should cheer
For us
As we light up your skies
And dance with us
To death songs
And cries

An obedient patient
You should sit
Still and calm
Stretch your arm
For our needle
To suck your blood

But hell will break loose
Now…They said
Well, aren’t we
Already
In a burning hell?

Will you kill my
Dead children?
Bomb my
demolished houses? Or
Burn my city that’s in ashes?

Hell had broken loose
I said
75 years ago
You see
With the first soul you took out of its bed

We’ve got nothing
More to lose
I said
We’ve had enough
Humiliation… Oppression… And abuse

(October 9, 2023)