If I Must Die

Yesterday evening (Aug 3rd) Heather and I attended a vigil for peace in Gaza. This post and the next will featrure two poems by Palestinian writers which were used in the vigil. Neither are used to excuse or justify the actions of either Hamas or the Israeli government and army. Both, it seems to me, demonstrate that the cost of these wars is borne mainly by the innocents.

If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself —
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above,
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love.
If I must die
let it bring hope,
let it be a story.

Dr. Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian writer, poet, translator, university professor and activist from the occupied Gaza Strip. On December 6, 2023, he was murdered by an Israeli airstrike along with his brother, sister and their children in Israel’s ongoing genocidal siege of Gaza of 2023.