They said our God was violent.
I wondered who their God must have been—
To think it wasn’t a sin to kill flowers because they
Were a different kind.

2. The Responder to Prayer—Al-Mujeeb

And when you burn fields of land and olive trees,
What exactly does that make you?
You are not harming us alone—
You are harming the mother you claimed solely yours.
Children do not burn their mothers to avenge their siblings—
They love them despite being different.

3. Bethlehem

And we were told we had no magic in our cities—
We are no Eiffel Tower—
Nor Italy’s Colosseum—
But we are the minarets next to churches.
We are Human chains protecting Godly Prayers
Despite the politics around us.
For if magic didn’t live within us,
It was born in our country.

4. Resist

I want my children to know
That they, too, belong,
Even if they keep denying their existence
And they, too, can keep cities alive
If they write about them.