Yahia Lababidi is an Arab-American writer of Palestinian background. He is the author of 11 books of poetry and prose, including most recently Quarantine Notes, short meditations composed during the Covid-19 pandemic. His new collection of poetry, Palestine Wail, is available from Daraja Press.
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.
