Her prayers are whispered away

As sleep never stays

Under the moonlit stars

She leaves hope ajar

Eyes melting with furious tears

She wanted to collect for water … in fear

She’d have none for the next day

Go to the south—get out—they’d say

As she runs through debris and fray

Her next meal is dropped

Into the bottom of the ocean

Her courage as loud as Yunus’s devotion

They want her to drown lest she swim away

She misses the Ramadan of food stacked upon trays

Flatbreads and olives and chicken roast

Freedom to Philistine, she’d make a toast

But there was no one on the other side of the table

To read her stories and fables

Only 10 years of age and death seeming close

The prideful soldiers would often boast

Of how many lives like her mother’s they’d taken

But her faith could never be shaken

Her childhood should’ve been playing with dolls

And growing tall

Not saving herself from falls

Her little feet racing against bombs

Holding her heart to stay calm

They want her to remain small

For they are afraid Palestine will free us all

But living is her insistence

So long live the resistance

Until the end of time

Long live Palestine. 

Tamanna Syed is a poet, storyteller, former Boston University student, and a student of Harvard TH Chan.

Featured image: Olive trees in the summer in a town near Jenin via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).