Cycle of Frustration

 (This poem was one of my earliest poems, written in 1988 and became the title of my first poetry book)

When I was born

A white dove

Circled the sky above

While an armed guard

Stood outside my makeshift hut

When I was a child

I played fedayeeh

With the other children

And wondered when I will join

My father and older brother on a suicide mission

When I was a teenager

I was trained to be a soldier

While there was talk of

“Autonomy”, self-determination,

Confederation, international peace conference

When I was a young man

I avenged the massacre of

Deir Yassin in my own little way

My parents, two sisters and my younger brother

Were massacred in the Sabra refugee camp

When I was in my thirties

With all my frustrations brewing within me

I hijacked a plane

To free my older brother

From the enemy’s prison

When my child was born

A white dove

Circled the sky above

While an armed guard

Stood outside his makeshift hut




(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)