My loyal cactus,
I'm sorry to leave you alone on my balcony
I have no excuse except being forced to go to the south
Under the barrage of heavy bombs,
Frightening explosions and thousands of martyrs.
I'm sorry again to let you encounter the terrible days and nights,
Witness the destruction of my surrounding neighborhood
And let you face thirst for more than a year without a sip of water
But I was there hungry and starving like you
When I came back
I found you still stalwart
Only some scars on your body
As a testimony on the merciless soldiers.
Let me hug you tightly and console you
Because your thorns are more delicate
Than the hypocrisy of humanity.
©® Ahmed Miqdad
Gaza
Palestinian poet
Activist
Awarded poet
Literary prize
Naji Naaman
2025
English
Afrikaans
Arabic
Bengali
Bulgarian
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
Filipino
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hausa
Hindi
Hungarian
Igbo
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Malayalam
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Spanish
Swahili
Ukrainian
Urdu
Yoruba