Qahr قهر - A Call To Action During Genocide

This poem challenges those who silence support for Palestinians to imagine themselves in the same horrific conditions of genocide and occupation, while the world shows the same callousness and cowardice towards their suffering. This piece is a reminder that tomorrow we can, and likely will, experience any injustice against others that we observe and ignore today; it's a call to action to end our complicity, and courageously work toward our collective liberation.

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Qahr قهر

i hope that if one day 

the rubble from what was once your sanctuary 

becomes your sky 

and your ground the mass graves of generations who died 

from days and decades of genocide 

trapped in a purgatory between two realms 

hoping for peace in the after-life 

after living through hell 

i hope that if one day the light from explosions in the sky 

seep through the cracks of concrete like sunshine 

while suffocating smoke swallows fresh air 

threatening to choke you as you wail in despair 

hoping someone will hear you 

that someone is there 

that someone who sees your suffering 

will care 

before it's too late 

before you prepare for your final sunset 

while the weight of the wreckage rests on your chest 

threatening to crush you and take your last breath 

hoping you’ll be found and liberated, even if in death 

and that the souls of those who chose complicity to protect 

their comforts live in eternal unrest 

i hope that if one day as you lie awake, 

crushed in a tiny space that may soon become your tomb 

where the booms from bombs replace the songs of birds, 

that you can’t still hear the silence of cowards across the world 

claiming calls for your safety and solidarity cost too much 

are too controversial 

take too much time 

are an affront to their funders and they don't want to lose a dime 

i hope that if this moment arrives, 

that the masses possess the conscience and courage you lack today 

that they consider the cost of your life and their souls too much to pay 

i hope they don't seek solace in silence 

and make you stream the screams 

of those carrying limbs and limp corpses killed in colonial violence

only to believe your oppressors lies when they deny it 

i hope they don't try to balance both sides of genocide 

and condemn your resistance 

while debating whether your children count as innocent lives and have the right to existence 

i hope that when the dust from mass death settles 

when truth defeats the propaganda machine 

and in hindsight when everyone agrees that this was ethnic cleansing

a preventable genocide 

as we watched a nation state annihilate entire bloodlines live

that you remember where you stood , 

and what you did 

that your words of condemnation, equivocation and commitment to both sides

while only one side is occupied and silenced while suffering genocide, are memorialized 

i hope you remember 

because we, and history, will never forget 

this is the legacy you were pressed to protect.

MEET THE WRITER

Shannon Cumberbatch

Welcome to my digital home, where you’ll find insight into my words and world. Write to Resistance is where I record our collective wounds, recovery and resilience through poetic expression. I write intuitively and fluidly, allowing the words and images I receive to flow onto the page without committing to any one convention. For me, this creative process is cathartic, and offers the perfect container for sentiments too heavy for a plain paragraph to hold.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. ✨

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