The Glittering Stone 

• CrossFireArabia
• February 11, 2025

By Khaled Nusseibeh

Perchance a demolition site

Is the breeding ground of a great culture

Areas decimated and people maimed

The sin being the will to be

And they are evincing prodigious resilience

Persevering in conditions of great harshness

The ceiling might have collapsed

But the earth is ready for rapid reconstruction

Undertaken by the brave men and children

Evincing invincibility in the face of great odds

One could not withhold a humble salute

To the women of legendary resistance

The targets of an unjust battle

To usurp, uproot and expel

But the roots are too deeply entrenched

In the beloved Gaza of Palestine

Truly, the bloodletting has been too profuse

Of people baffled by the extent of rancor 

The great lengths of guileful plotting 

To exacerbate a tragic diaspora 

However many a time the uprooting

The displacement is supplanted by a will to live

To restore the broken tents

To water a tiny garden of life 

Supporting families that were abandoned

To a fate knowable only to God

Perchance illusory peace may become a reality

Perverted by an inordinate penchant for war

And you Gaza are a glittering stone 

With a sparkle that will outlive the morbid plots

Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator, writer and a poet with several published poetry collections to his name. He holds a BA and MA Degrees from Colombia and Princeton universities in the USA. Mr Nusseibeh was born in Amman in 1961 and is a Jordanian of Palestinian origin.