Sandcastles in Gaza (or What We Destroyed) is a poem reflecting on the involvement of the United States in the most-recent attack on Gaza. This poem is dedicated to journalist and mother Reema Saad (30), who, along with her young children, was killed in the bombings of residential Gaza just days before the Eid al-Fitr holiday celebrations. News reports announcing her death featured a picture of her and her toddlers enjoying the beach and noted how she was pregnant with her third child at the time. This picture and her story inspired this piece, which reflects on the simple joys that we as Americans often take for granted, despite our country’s own involvement in perpetuating such horrors.
Sandcastles in Gaza (or What We Destroyed) will be featured in the Protest 2021 Anthology, published by Moonstone Arts Center (in association with 100 Thousand Poets for Change), and I will be reading the piece on September 25, 2021. See flyer here for more details.