"During night airstrikes, all of us turned
into stones"
poet Mosab Abu Tohu of Gaza, Palestine
from page 86 in his recent riveting book
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| 2022 copyright |
Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short story writer, and essayist from Gaza. Abu Toha is the author of Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza (2022,
City Lights), which won a 2022 Palestine Book Award. Abu Toha is the
founder of the Edward Said Library, and from 2019 to 2020, he was a
visiting poet and librarian-in-residence at Harvard University.
 |
| Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short story writer, and essayist from Gaza |
&
Mouth Still Open
Someone’s mouth is still open. He hadn’t finished yawning
when shrapnel
pierced
through
his chest,
stung his
heart.
No wind
could
stop the
flying pieces
of shrapnel. Even
the sparrow on the lemon tree nearby wondered how they
could
move
with
no
wings
Copyright © 2022 by Mosab Abu Toha. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 15, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.