Dunia Abu Mohsen & Judith Morrison

Dunia*

A streak of pink cloud

stretched across the evening sky

a star appeared

offering a solemnity

to the hour at hand –

A wattle bird

sang its evening song

and a lament

entered my heart-

A soft breeze

gathered the trees

in which shadows hid-

                                  You had asked the world

                                 ** ‘I want someone

                                     to take me abroad

                                     to any country

                                    to install a prosthetic leg

                                    to be able to walk

                                   like other people’ –

                                  The pink cloud

                                  followed its destiny

                                  the wattle bird became silent

                                  the trees with their secrets

                                  began to blend

                                  into the evening darkness

                                                the star whispered your name

*12 year old Dunia Abu Moshen was killed by a shell that did not explode but struck her head while sleeping. Dunia was recovering in Naser Hospital in Khan Younis in Sothern Gaza, while having lost a leg in an Israeli air strike -November 2023.

** Dunia's words

---

Dunia Abu Moshen: 'Dunia lost her leg in an Israeli airstrike on October 27 that struck her relatives’ home in the Al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Six of her family members were killed in the airstrike, including her parents and two of her siblings. 

“I want someone to take me abroad, to any country, to install a prosthetic leg, to be able to walk like other people,” Dunia told DCIP in a video that was filmed on November 25 during the seven-day truce agreement between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups. 

“I want to become a doctor, like those who treat us, so that I can treat other children,” Dunia said. “I only want one thing: For the war to end.”

More than 7,870 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the Governmental Media Office. Thousands more are missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, most of whom are presumed dead. The death toll is rising rapidly as Israeli authorities cut Palestinians in Gaza off from food, clean water, fuel, electricity, and vital medicines'.     

Taken from Defence for Children International - Palestine.

Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) is an independent, local Palestinian child rights organization dedicated to defending and promoting the rights of children living in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

Judith Morrison is a poet who lives and writes on the land of the Wurundjeri people who have never ceded their land.