Hind Rajab 6 Years Old (In Memory Of)

 

Hind Rajab 6 years old

(In memory of)

8/19/2024

Debbie Blane

I was

An

Ordinary girl

With a wonderful

And ordinary life

Until I was left

In a car

With my dead aunt and uncle

And four cousins.

 

The Israeli defense force

Promised me safe passage

And the two

Brave ambulance drivers who were

Sent to retrieve me

To take me to my anxiously waiting mother.

 

They had been promised safe passage

2.

Until.

Until.

The snipers killed me in the backseat

Of the car

And the ambulance drivers

In the ambulance

When we were all supposed to be

 

Set free.

 

I have become a famous six year old martyr

In the world

Because my mother weeps

And I am gone

From my beloved gaza.

 

Now that you know who I am

I will tell you about the ordinary object.

It is an olive wood spoon.

I used to help my mother cook

By stirring things in a pot

With an olive wood spoon.

 

Guess where that spoon came from?

 

My family used to have olive wood groves

Our trees were old

Some of them could be

I don’t know….

Well,

Thousands of years old. 

 

Really.

 

Every year when the olives were picked

The loose olive wood was harvested

And kept to age

Then it was used to make oh so many

Beautiful

Things.

Like olive wood spoons

To stir my mother’s famous

Cooking

With.

 

Until.

Until.

Israel decided that the gaza strip

Could no longer breathe.

Trees have been

 

Destroyed

 

Pulled up by their roots

Chopped off at the bottom

Killed

Murdered

Like

Well,            like

                                            Me.

 

Have you ever held

An

Olive

Wood

Spoon?

?

?

 

They are beautiful.

Smooth.

The grain of the wood shows

And tells a story.

 

An ordinary object

That I held in my hand

That my father had carved

Just

For

Me

Out of the fallen

                                    Branch

                                                  Of

                                                          An

                                                                 Olive

                                                                               Wood

                                                                                              Tree.