Raed Hammoudeh (Al Bireh) Age:30
I’m not looking for cameras
I keep my face covered
I discover him
I discover him
A gunman with a silencer
He discovers determination
He discovers lightening
Muhammed Al-Dura (Breij refugee camp) Gazzah Age:12
My picture glowing on the wall
My smile melts behind my father
Give me back
My school bag
My drawing book
My place among my brothers at dinnertime
Our daily quarrel
My songs
My desk at my school
My mother’s embrace
And take my pictures down
Jihad Mahmoud Al-Alool (Nablus)age:23
Joseph I am coming
Among my brothers
I keep my head high
I walk towards sunbeams
I fly
I wear fire round my waist
I ride the wind
I race with the stars
I embrace the sky
I climb the clouds
I draw the rays of the sun
I form
A rainbow
I hold Jarzim and Ibal in my arms
And I fall asleep
Hasan Hasanen (Shatila refugee camp) age:23
I never drank its oil
I never collected its olives
But
I carry it in the apple of my eye
I have never been there
I never stepped on its grass
But I burry myself in her picture
And slumber
Sarah Abdul-Haq (kosra) Nablus age: 2 years
The gods of war
The big tanks
The fighting planes
Are looking for me
I am looking for
The gods of love
The colors of the rainbow
My mothers lap
Shadi Al-Wawi (Al Fawar refugee camp) Hebron age:22
My compass
My computer
My roommates
My football
My protractor
The city of Khartoom
Are waiting for me
My mother’s agony
Is waiting for me
My graduation photograph
Is not waiting for me
Najah Abu Kneis (Gazza)
I use a stone
To shoot the darkness
I have an insight
I turn the ordinary around
I color my letters
I cross the seas
I change my motto
Here is the decisive spot
Here
The boys and the girls
Swore
Swore to live
Ahmed Ibrahim Siam (Muawyah) Um Al-Fahem age:19
I look from the niche of a damaged home
The world opens
He looks from the niche of a damaged heart
The world shrinks
Written by : Faiha Abdulhadi
Translated by: Fadia Abdulhadi