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I wrote this poem to lament the Arab Syrian boy Hamza Al-Khateeb.
He was a 13 years old from Al-Jeeza, a little town of the southern province of Daraa. He was arrested Friday 29 April 2011, which was also called “The Friday of Anger” while trying with others to break the sanction imposed by the security forces around the city of Daraa. His decomposed and mutilated body was returned to his family after about a month with obvious signs of inhuman torture.
Lamenting Hamza Al-Khateeb
The Butchers of children
By Tarif Youssef Agha
Oh Hamza, Are you going to accept our apology?
Will any apology at all be acceptable to you?
We left you defending a nation that maintained silence for decades
Therefore, it was humiliated “big time”
My pen was choked by tears for you
It collapsed at the horrifying scene of you
The horrifying scene, the pen was frozen by it
So it aged on the page and grew gray hair
Even poetry wept with us
And the letters turned bloody red
Wept at a flower that was burned while young
And at a childhood that was forbidden from youth
By ignoring you, I was torturing my conscience
But by looking at you, I was torturing my heart
Not lamenting you tastes like treason
But lamenting you is so painful
Every time I ran away from my papers
I found them pointing the way back
Running away from you is like being in exile
But coming back to you is mourning
Blessed is a nation in which even children defend it
And its women are ready to die for it
How sad when a ruler laughs while his people are suffering
How sad that the ruler is a professional butcher
***
Al-Durra and you today are in the same place
Each one of you tested the same drink
He was executed by bullets
You were executed by torture
They killed him with a soldier’s rifle
They mutilated you with a butcher’s knife
He died in front of the whole world
You died alone behind bars and closed doors
His killer belongs to the group of criminals
Your killer is below the rabic dogs
His killer is not a human
Your killer is a monster with a tail and fangs
His killer is a homeland enemy but
Your killer claims he belongs to the homeland
His killer will be ashamed in the Day of Judgment
To stand beside your butcher
Al-Durra and you became symbols of a nation
Al-Durra and you are friends in heaven
Al-buazizi, Khaled and you became
Symbols to the revolutions of anger and punishment
While the fire of the Tunisian burned down the throne of the thieves
And while the blood of the Egyptian brought destruction to the Pharaoh
Your blood will drown your executioners
And your fire will destroy the throne of wolves
***
Poetry by: Tarif Youssef-Agha
Houston, Texas
Sunday, May 30, 2011
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