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Live Encounters Gaza Poetry & Writing, January 2024
A lonely child in the camp, poems by Ahmed Nabawi.
A lonely child in the camp
In the first day
Between the groans of the roads
He remained – panicked –
He shouts
He flounders around in weeping legs
He cries
Words come from his mouth
And he loses consciousness for a while
And he wakes up
To return to his first life
***
In the next day
He sat sad, contemplating
– Drink
He does not drink
– Eat
He does not eat
***
On the third day
Sadness did not flow on the roads
The earth did not rise
And the heavens did not cry
When a hoarse voice rose
He announces
That the screaming child
Died
The unavenged blind woman
I will not blame death if
She sat
On the hill of ashes
She sat
On the ruins of her village
that
The likes of it have not been mentioned
– before –
In the countries
***
She – in her village –
Was living without noise or moaning
Among good people
Her hand is their hand
Her step is their step
And the brightness of her eyes that she lost
was got
From the light of their hearts
***
Time passed by
And she did not feel it
And trees of years grew on the horizon of her forehead
In a village
That fell in love with the hands of the farmers
They lived in it
They only know planting and harvesting
They heard news of wars
And their minds could not imagine – one day –
That war will trample them
***
In a night
They were preparing nostalgia
And light up time
Longing for ears
It blew them away
The wind of cannons and bombs
And the screaming got louder
Bodies flew
And was crushed
– Above those in it – the houses
***
And she woke up – terrified –
The blind grandmother
She called: …
No one heard
She called: …
She often cried
She extended her hands – in the space – in front of her
And she considered her steps
And she stumbled
In her daughter’s corpse
That
The smell of blood sprang from it
She called: Hoda
She called: …
The range answered her
She screamed: ….
She heard nothing but the echoing wail
Then she remembered – immediately – her eyes
And she held back the crying
And she walked
She sat on the ruins
of her village
That
The likes of it have not
been mentioned – before –
In the countries
She sat
On
The hill of ashes.
© Ahmed Nabawi
Ahmed Nabawi is an Egyptian poet and academic. He deals with humanitarian themes in his poetry. His poetic career began early in the nineties. He has five collections of poetry: (Testimony of Love,” “Wounds Have Tributaries,” “Flames of Questions,” “Scenes from the Refugee Camp” (The Flourishment of Colors), and two collections in print entitled (An Ant Said – The Doors). In addition, he has a collection of critical books, including The Poet’s Culture and the Production of Significance – The Poetics of Small Details – The Contemplative Tendency in Andalusian Poetry – The Heritage Tributaries in Andalusian Poetry.