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21st Century Poetry We are in the heights now

by Hiba Abu Nada

We are in the Heights now

teachers, free of their crowded classrooms,
their voices no longer shouting to be heard,
new families without pain or sadness,
journalists taking pictures of heaven
writing about the eternal love.
All, all of them are from Gaza.
There is a new Gaza in heaven
without siege
taking shape now.

Good night, Gaza

Gaza night is dark apart from the glow of rockets,
Quiet apart from the sound of the bombs,
Terrifying apart from the comfort of prayer,
Black apart from the light of the martyrs.
Good night, Gaza.

Hiba Abu Nada (1991-2023), a poet and novelist, came from a family displaced to Saudi Arabia by the first Nakba. She worked in Gaza at the Rusal Centre for Creativity and was killed in her home by an Israeli air strike on October 20 2023. From Out of Gaza, New Palestinian Poetry (Smokestack Books, 2024).

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