“I wish children didn’t die. I wish they would be temporarily elevated to the skies until the war ends. Then they would return home safe, and when their parents would ask them: ‘where were you?’ they would say: ‘we were playing in the clouds.’” – Palestinian Poet, Ghassan Kanafani

At one per day, it would take 43 years to attend the funerals of the 15,780 Palestinian children killed since October 2023.

Would you live to attend them all?

“There, on a land, we were told, was not our land,

under a sky, we were told, was not our sky,

my people live their death.”

Are the clouds safe? With falling bombs and misplaced aid.

There are over 130 mass civilian graves in the Gaza Strip, few funerals.

“My people write the names of their children

on arms and legs, so they can find them

later in the massacres.”

Palestinian Samer Abu Hawwash’s poem “My People” speaks more on what the lived experience of being a Palestinian is than any non-Palestinian can fathom.

And this country, the United States of America, and its colonialist ideals feeds the mouth that claims Palestine’s skies and offers its people life only in death. U.S citizens have Palestinian names written in blood on our limbs. Genocide of the Palestinian people is a humanity crisis. It is absolutely critical that we listen. We must demand an end to the slaughter now, and we must demand a free Palestine.

Stephanie Reiss

San Juan Island