Gaza, Palestine Found Alive Beneath the Rubble*
By Genevieve Cora Fraser
White phosphorus’ ghostly cast floated
Flamed and burnt flesh ignited
Amira only had a bucket of water
To comfort her
During the chilly nights
Following the conflagration
In Gaza, Palestine
Spared death she hovered
Between life and the eternal
Shadow cast that separates
Martyrs from the living
Her wounds bled
She fled
To an abandoned apartment
The dead did not speak
Beneath the rubble of her home
Flashes of joy
In the arms of her father
Her brothers taunting
Chasing her
In the thicket of memories draped
Over the chill of the night
Like a warm blanket
Holding the love of her family
To her heart her mother’s cries
Pierced the night
Sons dead crushed into the bones
And sinew of her husband
A daughter lost beneath the rubble
She believed her dead
But she had fled
The dead in dread
Bleeding from shrapnel
Israeli bomb blasts scattered
The girl hid in an empty apartment
Stripped of food, clothing, blankets
She collapsed on a bare mattress
Tanks rumbled past
Alone trembling
Her wounds wept
Ruby tears
Days passed
Hovering between life and eternal silence
Her mother buried fragments
Believed to be
Her remains
On the threshold of death
A man stood on the doorstep
Of his abandoned apartment
Then entered to find Amira
Alive
* Based on a story published by the Maan News Agency, Palestine