Day 487/Ceasefire Day 17

We were never defeated, the girl
tells her small brother, too small
to understand the words; but the girl
wants him to know.  They destroyed
our house, set fire to the shelter
we lived in, deprived us
of water.  But we never gave up.
When they cut the electricity
we took it from the sun.
When they bombed the hospitals
the doctors made makeshift hospitals
in tents.  When there was no
gauze, we borrowed it
from the dead.  When there
was no food, we gathered greens
that grew between slabs of concrete,
cooked fallen birds over fires
we made from sticks.  We were hungry,
we ate.  We wrapped you
in whatever clothes we weren’t
wearing, slept with you
between us so you could be warmed
by the warmth of our bodies.
You need to know this, you
who are too young
to tell your own story.  This
is our story. They blasted our streets,
wore our neighborhoods down
to gravel.  But they never
silenced us.  They never crushed us.