By Ahmed Masoud
You have the years ahead,
a sky full of stars to chase,
dreams glowing,
fuelled by possibilities.
So rest your worries aside,
bottle them and cast them into the forgiving sea
Let your voice travel through the wind,
speak for the silenced
shout for the unheard
forget the acne on your skin
the curl of your hair
let it swirl around in different directions
*
Do not glance back over your shoulder.
You hold the fight, the voice,
the whispered prayer that shields you.
So step forward,
Fierce, unafraid, unmistakably beautiful
unapologetically Palestinian.
*
Be the heart that never tires of beating,
the mouth that never forgets to speak,
the smile that warms a friend and startles a foe.
Walk upright and sing without restraint,
don’t worry who can hear.
If they don’t change with the beauty of your voice,
they will decay like a plant that missed out on the warm spring.
Dance to the trembling ululations
of mothers embracing their beloveds freed from prison bars.
*
Let the tears rest on your cheek like olive seeds.
One day, you will touch them
and remember
that you remained the change.
*
Revolt.
Rise.
You are the youth and the future.
You are the beauty and the storm.
You are the justice we are waiting for!
Ahmed Masoud is an award-winning Palestinian author living in the UK. His first novels, Vanished: The Mysterious Disappearance of Mustafa Ouda and Come What May have received critical acclaim and have been translated into several languages. Ahmed is also a playwright and poet who has recently received praise from the UK’s leading theater critics in The Guardian.
