Featured poet

Areej Abu Khater is a teacher from Palestine.

(The text below is the writer's translation of what the photograph and the poem are about.)

This picture shows me with Madeline. I know it is created by artificial intelligence, but my heart breaks because I never had even one real photo with her. We never had the time to hold the phone and take a picture. Madeline was in second grade, a student of mine, and my heart was deeply attached to her and her tenderness. After her passing, I was in shock. I couldn’t cry, but I held my heart and wrote about her with all sorrow and love. This poem was born from the depth of my grief. Please, have mercy on Madeline’s soul.

The Bird of Deliverance

The chalk cries in your abandoned classroom, oh Madeleine,

The months weep, and the school bell longs for the second grade...

But you never return.

Oh, girl with the carob-colored hair,

And eyes now sleeping inside a sorrowful shroud.

Your gentle letters are still here, in my possession—

Kisses of tenderness, and an invitation to the jasmine.

What was your sin?

To grow up before your time?

To stand in the soup kitchen line for hours just to get lunch,

And wait in the water queue so your family could survive?

What was your sin, my little angel...

That the truck meant to bring life to the homes,

Became a guillotine?!

The water truck crushed your snow-white dreams,

And drenched you in a terrifying death in this vile world.

Our little bird has flown to the embrace of the martyr…

Now, with your father, Madeleine, there are gardens and feasts.

Now, there is no waiting turn for a plate of food, no fatigue, and no endless line.

Now, she eats as she pleases, and drinks from heavenly springs (Salsabeel).

She sings, and she laughs upon the branches of bliss...

With no departure.

Our little girl has found her rest,

And returned to safety.

Madeleine did not die... it is we who are dying!

We are the ones who die a thousand times each day under the siege,

Weeping for the state of the land; we are the dwellers of the graves...

While she is the sole survivor from the hell of waiting.