Maysam

MAYSAM

Ten-year-old Maysam from Gaza speaks
in English on YouTube, says, I’m still
alive and I’m not
terrorist. She smiles,
recites her lines in a sing-song manner
as if rehearsing for a school play
with the word kill in it,
shakes her head on the word not,
waves on hello! and bye!
as if waving to her mother
who is watching in the audience,
as if she could persuade
young Israeli women who tweet
stinking Arabs may you
die amen.
 ( Zeina Hashem Beck )



Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet whose poetry collection, titled To Live in Autumn (Backwaters Press, 2014), won the 2013 Backwaters Prize. Follow her on Twitter: @zeinabeck or on Facebook.