The Children / We See (Poem)

 The Children / We See

            What childhood does /

            a destroyed childhood beget?

                    ~ Fady Joudah

 

We see them –

the children

rummaging through the fallen

fortress that once was Gaza

 

Their urge –

to eat, sleep, play

to wake as if free

like the kites

they fly in hope

their dreams

of so many seeds

their grandfathers sowed

when the land was theirs

to harvest

and they could

taste the white cucumbers

the figs and the olives

Battiri eggplant, gourds

with necks like swans'

These children –

we see them

what they've become

ghost-eaters

dirt-diggers

what they would give

for a taste of khubeezeh

a drink of cold water

a wash in the Red Sea

They push their steel pots

their plastic bowls

to the front lines

their eyes on those

with the stronger arms

the longer reach

the elbows out and ready

 

They are children –

we see them

know what they teach us

what war does

how power takes

on a life of its own

delivering back

their small bodies

into the arms of their fathers

borne too early of their mothers

denied them

__________________________

The epigraph is from Fady Joudah's poem "[. . .]."

Khubeezeh, as locally known in Gaza, is cheeseweed. It has become, according to the United Nations, a major food source for Gazans. A plant, it typically has been used in recipes for side dishes.