💡💜𝘼𝙨 𝙄𝙩 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙔𝙤𝙪

(a) I would advise you not to read these next few verses, But I urge you to devour them word for word: Burned alive, Now breathless Human Corpses. Orange flames ravaging through tents at a playground. Orange flames blazing away the darkness of the night. A father lifting up his arms, Carrying between his palms the headless body of his child, Spinning around in chaotic circles, Pleading for someone to do something-anything. A baby boy, in his yellow PJ's- Only a minute ago sleeping beneath a sky of night stars, Now laying still in a soulless corpse. I can hear the wails and screams of Men and women and children flooding The void inside the walls of this shrilling darkness. Their innocent souls squealing in the one language of terror, Sending ripples of shockwaves into the depths of our oceans- And I beg of you, Will you please tell me when Will the tsunami finally rise to Bring an end to this madness? (b) They bring me to a standstill, These live scenes on my screen. Breath escapes my lungs, Chills crawl down my skin. These are not lies, These are not fabricated headlines, These are not pensive narratives Designed to fool you- These are raw, real facts Unfolding live Before your two eyes. Another massacre. Another civilian slaughter. Another mass murder deep into the night. Another burning of the tents and The living bodies inside those tents, This time on a Sunday, This time in Tal Al Sultan, This time in the block that was marked "safe." This time I feel it in the core of my heart, This heart of mine, that lives in Rafah. Rage! Rage! It is time to rage! This is what my heart tells me to do, On this mad, sad Sunday in May. -Omar Itani (c) Today was a dark, grim day. I held my knots of tears for as long as I could Until the lump grew too big and someone asked me How are you- No, really, they insisted- How are you? And I opened my mouth to fake the answer but My heart burst with red-hot tears spilling all The sadness, The boiling broth of rage, The eruption of guilt and the flight of anger. How are we expected to carry on with our days Painting hollow smiles on our sleepless faces when One can see the sadness spewing from beneath our eyelids? How are we expected to talk numbers and Projects and sales projections when I Cannot unsee what's in front of me: Charred bodies of mothers and fathers, Headless kids and chopped limbs and An inferno of hell engulfing the darkness. Eight months onwards and still, I insist, The world cannot go on living unhinged, Concealing lies within a web of fabricated lies Reducing all their atrocities to "tragic mistakes." -Omar Itani

(a) And on the very next day Two friends sit by the river Feeding bread crumbs to nearby pigeons A group of six teenage boys roll around in their bikes A couple lick away at their chocolate ice creams A mother strolls by with her son: "Look mommy, Look at those boys rowing their boat in the water!" And I, sleepless still, Sit here alone beneath An orange sky, And I wonder: What on earth have we done to deserve This decent life, While my brothers and sisters suffer alone in this Wrath that has been brought upon them, Burning away in this cauldron of hell named Rafah. While we- We scroll and We share and We rage As we watch the truth unfold- While the world carries on living Silently, beneath the blindfold. -Omar Itani (b) I write these words with tears streaming down my face Trickling in buckets from the wounds of ripped, blood-stained ribbons. Yesterday I looked around me and all I saw in this new reality was A reflection of my spirit: chaos, sadness, dysfunction, sloppiness. Today, my energy escaped my body; I passed the day away as I pass my nights, Between the sheets of my bed because Today my energy escaped my body and I felt... Empty. Void of life. Void of the will to do, the joy to be. It is beyond comprehensible what a war can do to the human body. It crushes you in every meaning of the word. Your mind is numbed. Your heart weeps. Your soul bleeds. Your emotions are sucked right out of your body. You feel... defeated. And so you become that defeat, one and the same, a mirror now shattered into a million little pieces, a river now emptied of its water, a rock now hollowed by the weight of the horror. Breath escapes your lungs Love escapes your heart Peace escapes your soul And all that settles in their stead is this: Torment. Dark, murky torment that spreads through you like venom, Gnawing away at what's left of your spirit and Wringing the insides of your bones Until every inch of you is totally crushed, reduced, like our homes, to dust and rubble. (c) No palm tree is perfectly shaped, yet we marvel at the beauty with which it stands. No sea shell is perfectly drawn, yet we marvel at the beauty with which it curves. Accept and appreciate yourself as you are today, in your natural state, just like you would a tree in the forest, a flower in the garden, or a seashell by the shore. You are the entirety of you. You are whole. And you are beautiful. -Omar Itani "As It (may) Resonates With You" _MKYDVC🐅💜