2023

... I have no words, 
so I will share with you Samah's words:

Wish Us Freedom Every Year

Don't tell us a year has passed
We don't measure our lives
by your calendar
Time stood still here so long ago
Weighed down by loss and grief
and in between moment
of quite reprieve
Don't send us your wishes
for a happy new year
Time is frozen here
And one calendar year
Cannot contain our lives
Don't tell us a year has passed
Our clock stopped ticking
when justice collapsed
Ushering decades of oppression
Don't speak ti us of the passage of time
For we have endured the absence of time
We don't measure lives by days like you do
We measure lives
by the number of embraces
by a lover's heartbeat
by the breath of babies
and the smiles of our beloved
Don't wish us a happy new year
wish us freedom every year
Wish use justice and dignity
From the river to the sea

Samah Sabawi
First written 2010, revised 2024