Mosab Abu Toha - Rashida Murphy
Mosab Abu Toha
In Gaza
Our birds have hidden their songs
In their nests
Before flying in search of food
-posted Instagram 26 November 2023 @mosab_abutoha
The following poem by Rashida Murphy was inspired by reading several Palestinian poets including Mahmoud Darwish and Mosab Abu Toha, in particular, Mosab Abu Toha’s recent poem above, originally posted on 26 November 2023 on Instagram: @mosab_abutoha.
Rashida Murphy
Fake
You say the pictures aren’t real
Those children climbed under rubble
Played dead for a photograph
The silent man, limp girl, crying boy,
Not real.
I wantyou to be right.I want Gaza to unbomb herself
Unkill her children
Unearth her houses
Undo her genocide
I want to say
The pictures aren’t real.
Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, essayist, fiction writer, scholar, and librarian from Gaza. He is the founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza’s first English-language library. Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is his debut book of poems. The collection won an American Book Award, a 2022 Palestine Book Award and was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, as well as the 2022 Walcott Poetry Prize. He was a Visiting Poet in the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. Abu Toha is a columnist for Arrowsmith Press, and his writings from Gaza have also appeared in The Nation and Literary Hub. His poems have been published in Poetry, The Nation, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Poetry Daily, New Arab and the New York Review of Books, among others. On the 19th of November 2023 Mosab was kidnapped by Israeli forces whilst attempting to evacuate. He was beaten and interrogated and released on 21st of November 2023.
Rashida Murphy is a writer living on Whadjuk Noongar Nation. She is the author of a novel and a collection of short stories. Her essays and poems are published in journals worldwide. Her Instagram handle is @rashidamurphy and her website is https://rashidawritenow.com/
