Yahia Lababidi is an Arab-American writer of Palestinian heritage and the author of sixteen books of poetry and prose, including Palestine Wail (2024). His latest, If You Cannot Say GENOCIDE: Essays on Conscience and Witness (New Village Press, 2026), received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was named by The New Arab among ten essential books on Gaza. His writing has appeared in +972 Magazine, The New Statesman, Liberties, and Common Dreams, among other publications.
Why Care About Gaza?
Because you did not have to run out to hunt
for a spare tent in the middle of the night
— chest-constricted and frantic —
lucky, you and your family
were not obliterated
by the raining bombs
demolishing your home
snatching your childhood memories
replacing them with the unholy stench
of burning human flesh.
*
Stranger in a Strange Land
America is a psychopath,
a gaslighting, abusive partner
that insists on being loved
no, worshipped as saint and savior
Never mind your murdered family
lying at your feet and bloody knife
still clutched in their twitching hands
It wasn't always this way…
Look what you made me do!
Don't make me do it, again—
smile and try to be grateful.
