I Will Not.

Syria's Children

I will not call for death.

I will not dare to speak 

the words that call for the 

death of the “other."

I will not seek to avenge 

through death, the sister, 

the mother, the father 

or brother.

I will not cry, 

“If you kill us, 

then we are right to kill!” 

and then question, in anguish,  

“Where has our humanity gone?”

I will not call for death.

You ask me to justify how I 

can stand for my enemy;

I reply only, “I know no enemy.”

I know war and pain

Fear and injustice;

I know blood and tears

Corruption and failed armistice.

I see bodies, 

bloodied and strewn about

I see them - I hear you and 

I feel your pain –

I see mothers wailing for the 

loss of their children.

I see children grasping the 

air seeking the comforting arms 

of their slain mothers.

I see fathers burying their babes

in white cloths.

Palestine's Father & Child - Gaza 2014

I see children with despair in 

their eyes at sights they will 

never forget.

I hear of sirens unheeded

For to heed them means you 

have some place to hide.

I hear tales of the warnings 

that come in the night

The warnings that parents 

must choose to ignore

For to obey them must mean 

you have somewhere to go.

Libya's Child

I will not call for death.

“But they want you to die, 

they demand it, can’t you see?”

“You’re a traitor, a coward, 

how can this be?”

I see it -- I know -- 

do you think me so blind?

I hear it, I fear it, but 

I know where I stand.

As the world sits in wait, 

to watch and to plead

Those I cherish and love 

have no choice but to bleed.

Our humanity challenged, 

I offer you this:

We must search within us, 

this is where it exists.

It is not to be found in 

the barrel of a gun

Or a bomb, or a funeral, 

a surah or a psalm.

It is in your heart 

and your head and your womb

In your words and your dreams 

and the threads of your loom

Syria's Children

In your hopes for your children 

that they shall not hate

For their hopes and their dreams 

are their future and fate!

So abandon the sirens, the bombs 

and your might;

Hold your hands to the heavens 

and scream in the night.

Beg for mercy, for respite, 

for heart and for will

But do not seize the urge 

to go straight for the kill.

And repeat to yourself, 

for as long as it takes:

I will not call for death, no matter how much it aches.

I will not.

Yemen's Child