THEN WHEN

Ahmed Miqdad 

Gaza

They are all my brothers and sisters— and yet I am desperate and exhausted, facing my fate, left alone. 

They are billions — a few raise their voices in protest, while the majority stands by, passive, silent, and complicit as I am ethnically cleansed, deliberately slaughtered, and systematically starved to death. 

All the while, the powerful remain almost completely silent, suppressing justice and truth beneath the weight of weaponized lies and propaganda. 

My brothers and sisters are everywhere —like distant stars with fading light, as if long extinguished in the course of history.  

My brothers and sisters in humanity: Be like a tremendous tornado — shake the hearts of those in power and eradicate injustice and inhumanity. 

Do not be like a gentle river, that never floods the occupied land with justice, so that equality and peace may finally grow on that long, violently parched soil. 

Be like an erupting volcano — make the powerful hear your thunderous voice, and make your impact on this earth be felt. 

My dear fellow humans, if you don’t act now — then when?