Longing for Haifa
By Mohammed al-Qudwa

I miss Haifa.

I comb with my eyes

Sea foam for the last time

I wait for a ship or

A sail

Or even the stalk of an orange tree

I want to cross to break the barriers of the sea

That my orange should grows fruit

to be eaten by the deep.

Perhaps it will save from the depths of a shark.

I smile at the sea for the last time

or the one just before.

I wait for Noah’s miracle

The sea started to move with me.

To pull me towards the sun.

where everyday I hear calling for help

for the last time.

How many times have I compared them,

the sea to my beloved.

Those first threads, that each morning stream like hair to her waist.

How many times did she believe me?

She knew from my coastal town

that we cannot see those dawns.

The sea still tears me apart

Steals my limbs from me.

I use one arm to swim

The other to push away the waves

In spite of all this, I will cross.

I will leave for tomorrow an orange

That the sea pushes out to shore.

Perhaps it will land at Haifa

And I can take root and grow there again.

The sea cannot stop my love of her hair

nor make me forget the last sound of the sun.

Mohamed currently has set up a GoFundMe campaign to get his family out of Gaza into Egypt. You can contribute to the campaign here.