CrossFireArabia
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.
