Beirut, 1976
By Hamzah Taleb
Identifies with the nations of Lebanon & Palestine
The rise of the rifle splits the rooster's morning call
Um Waleed screams for Abu Waleed to get up and bring her fresh bread He trips over the hole in their apartment floor
Marya's gold-dipped cross gets caught on the flour
Um Waleed thinks the bread tastes sour
Hassan's Keffiyeh gets caught on the cats claws
Irritated by the sniper's beam, the cat runs away
Ali fires the mortar he has been working on all night
Um Waleed falls trying to fill the empty gas tank
The Adhan is heard throughout West Beirut
Hassan gets hung by his Keffiyeh in the East
Tarek gives his ID to the border officer
Marya sends out the manakish to the camp
Abu Waleed flips the newspaper after helping his wife
A christian baker was shot near a refugee camp
The flag rises, a new morning has come
Another murdered, another liberated
Um Waleed waits for her husband to come home
The rooster calls, signalling the death of another
Hamzah Taleb is a 21-year-old Palestinian creative from Toronto, Canada going to school at York University for Law and Society, with a minor in creative writing. At the age of 17, Hamzah published his first poetry book titled The Nature of Love that captures his early work, with his second set to be published early 2025. He is a passionate poet that writes about subjects surrounding love and romance, self-identity, and most importantly, his Palestinian heritage.