(Refaat Alareer, Palestinian poet, one of the founders of the We Are Not Numbers project and professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, was killed yesterday (Dec 7) in a targeted Israeli airstrike that also killed his brother, his sister, and her four children.)
If I must die - Refaat Alareer
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 own 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 tale.
(Refaat Alareer, one of the founders of the We Are Not Numbers project and professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, was killed Decenber 7 2023 in a targeted Israeli airstrike that also killed his brother, his sister, and her four children.)
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