Monday, May 13, 2024

MY CHILD

 


My child is wrapped in a white sheet
Lifeless
My eyes are streaming with tears
Endless
My heart is devastated with grief
Immeasurable
My lips kiss her forehead again
Demoralized
My arms hold her tight to my chest
Bewildered
My body is devoid of strength
lethargic 
My cries shout out in anger
Dumbfounded
My mind is perplexed
Incomprehensible 

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

SAY SOMETHING



What can I do

What can I say

To make you sway

To make you stew


Enough to make a call

Advocate for morality

Champion humanity

A measure so small


If we all turn a blind eye

Looked the other way

Not a word we say

Letting the time fly


Maybe the atrocities will go away

Maybe another story will consume

Sweep our emotions like a broom

Escape from our mind in a day


There are so many atrocities

You say to me

Too many for me to see

Who am I to influence policies


Neutrality helps the oppressor

Never the victim

Silence is a symptom 

Silence assists the tormentor


Do something say something

Speak to your friend

Speak to no end

It starts by communicating


-Fadi Zanayed

November 3, 2023

6:32 am 

A TALE OF TWO PALESTINIANS


I am here

He is there

Tranquility surrounds me 

Pandemonium surrounds him

I fear nothing 

He fears bombs 

Peacefulness in my home

Helplessness in his tent

Food a plenty fills me

Hungry belly aches him

Water on my nightstand 

Water he cannot find 

Warmth under my covers

Chills through his bones

Tears in my eyes

Survival on his mind


-Fadi Zanayed 

December 6, 2023

11:36 pm

A SEED RISES


A father is anticipating
His first child rejoicing
Away looking for food
In this catastrophic mood
His son is born
In a war zone
He has not returned today
Bombs falling what can I say
The mother’s tears fall
Upon the child and us all
The child with no name
Scurrying quickly is to blame
 No diapers to change
No clothes to exchange
No food to nourish
No water to flourish
What is this child’s fate
Born on this date
No father to see
No joy no glee
Will anger spring forth
Will revenge be his growth
A father died this day
A son is born this day
A body is buried today
A martyr’s seed rises today

- Fadi Zanayed, December 9, 2023 5:46 am

I wrote this poem after I saw a video of a recently born child in Gaza.

CONSUMED

 

I am tired and exhausted
Overwhelmed
demoralized and
Fatigued
I’m on my phone constantly
Reading
Copying and
Pasting
Another truth I post
Writing
Talking and
Educating
My friends everywhere
Atrocities
Grief and
Humanity
I cry out to the world
Babies
Helpless
Endless

-Fadi Zanayed
November 2, 2023
12:19 pm

HOPE IN A CHILD


Sitting on the rubble
Lamenting my struggle
Oh my heart aches
Sounds my stomach makes
Thoughts in my mind
Relief I do not find
Destruction all around me
Dead bodies I see
Where is my son
What have they done
I shout out my pain
No venue to explain
Does anybody care
Wondering as I stare
Up to the sky I gaze
Around me a blaze
I hear a voice very near
A child cries by my ear
I remove a heavy block
Upon a child my eyes lock
I pull her up into my arms
Agony hidden by her charms
She is alive
Hope does survive
My inner spirit I revive
Indestructible in overdrive
You can kill my physicality
But never my mentality
Know my struggle and see
My spirit will make me free

A VOICE OF DETERMINATION

 I hear a voice

A faint voice underneath

Underneath the rubble

My ears get near

 Nearer and nearer

I remove one stone 

Another stone then another

I see his eyes 

 Eyes of determination

To live above the rubble 

I pull him up

And up he raises a flag

  A Palestinian flag 


FADI  ZANAYED

January 31, 2024

8:46 am