Issue 20 – Spring 2011 – Maryam Chahine

Maryam Chahine

 

Song for the Music in the Gaza Ghetto: Variations of Osherow

Pity the eyes that are told not to cry. 
Pity the voices that are told to be silent. 
Pity the child whom the world sanctions to die. 
Pity the survivors who turn to violence.

Pity their freedom choked behind walls. 
Pity their rights locked behind bars. 
Pity the genocide hidden in museum halls. 
Pity the world’s silence driving by like cars.

Pity the olive trees that press through slaughter. 
Pity the breaths kidnapped from shores. 
Pity the tears that become ocean waters. 
Pity the living, dead in an unending war.

 

 

Maryam Chahine is an American Muslim woman living in Jordan where she teaches English to young children. Her work is forthcoming in HudsonView and has appeared in DamazineProjected Lettersken*againGhoti, Poetry Revolt and others.

 

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