Mar 2020
Besieged Twice
Curfew
from eight to six
Crowds avoided
Gatherings faded
Restaurants closed
Hookah bars emptied
No meeting with my friends
No dating my crush
I am losing them
It’s unusual
I look at the sky
It’s blue and shiny
I don’t see warplanes
I see no tanks, no bulldozers on the borders
No soldiers with army uniforms.
What’s going on, then?
Once again, I realize I am besieged
By no humans
By no soldiers
But by a pandemic
that picks preys
and steals their lives!
Mohammed Arafat
Curfew
from eight to six
Crowds avoided
Gatherings faded
Restaurants closed
Hookah bars emptied
No meeting with my friends
No dating my crush
I am losing them
It’s unusual
I look at the sky
It’s blue and shiny
I don’t see warplanes
I see no tanks, no bulldozers on the borders
No soldiers with army uniforms.
What’s going on, then?
Once again, I realize I am besieged
By no humans
By no soldiers
But by a pandemic
that picks preys
and steals their lives!
Mohammed Arafat
I lived in Gaza most of my life, where I witnessed a siege by Israeli occupation. Now I moved to the US, things here look like having a siege, not by humans but by a virus.
