Dear Greta, by Basman Aldirawi

I wonder how humanity can be carried in a boat? Isn’t it supposed to be heavier, bigger?

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Dear Greta,

by Basman Aldirawi

The bombs don’t go easy on the climate. 
The weather is too darn hot today. 
And I wonder what burns my eyes more, 
the sweat or the scenes of genocide 
from Gaza. 
At this moment, I can’t stop thinking of myself and my friends 
as sheep dragged to their slaughter, the korban of Eid. 
But God’s name this time is Yahweh.
My name is Amalekite.
Amalekite—fashionable name for a korban. 
You know I have never seen Gaza from a boat in
the middle of the Mediterranean.
And I am not daring enough to swallow my saliva and 
ask you how my house looks from a far. 
I can’t even ask: Did you see my house?
I wish I could be with you.
I wonder how humanity can be carried in a boat? 
Isn’t it supposed to be heavier, bigger? 
I wanted to thank you for carrying humanity in a boat. 
But as a recognized human animal,
I am not sure what humanity is. 
I keep asking about my other half:
What is human? 
Yours sincerely, 
The human animal, Basman

Read our interview with Poet of the Week, Basman Aldirawi, wherein he discusses using poetry to push back against cultural erasure. About this, he says:

The wound is here, visible, obvious, opened, contaminated, and hurtful. I appreciate very much the ability of poetry to say it out, to let you scream when everything is painful.