malalai khan

Can you hear the poets
singing deep
beneath the earth,
lulling the dead
to an eternal sleep?

Can you hear the children
laughing across
the Mediterranean sea,
echoing the joys
of a land that is free?

Buried, uprooted, forgotten,
but in faith they are begotten,
for it is still spring on the other side
and the earth belongs to them only,
and their voices only grow evermore
with each drop of blood 
that is spilt, redder 
than the flesh of watermelon,
fated in Heaven’s heart.

For they are poppies 
that wilt
but never die.

For they are olive trees
that bend
but never break.

The sky will fall upon them
and the world will be silent,
but the stars are witness
to this unending violence.

The rivers may run with blood 
and turn the grass red from green,
but the earth knows that
it will always be Palestine.

I wrote this one for the All Eyes on Palestine Poetry Contest at university, on 20th June, 2024, exactly an hour before the event. I already had a small draft which I wanted to enhance and took the contest as an opportunity to present. I won the 2nd prize! I honestly didn’t think I would win since there were a lot of Urdu poets as well, but I was delighted ❤ It was my second poetry contest win in a row, the first being the 1st position of the Dadaist Poetry Contest! ❤