dear everyone: written on my heart, all that i lost— my shoes, a donkey friend, a city, the skin of my feet, a goat, my home, my childhood— shattered at the hands of history. but my eternal friend alef helps me find the splinters of my life… and piece them back together.

tasting the sky is exceptional at living within a child's emotions and thought processes through the trauma of occupation, displacement and war. it is in-the-moment in a way that i always find impressive writingwise. there are so many echoes to today, i was gripped by it. it really holds you in the little tragedies of invasion, of your world being treated as a nothing to be trampled, as a permissible casualty, as sport. i felt the dread and the fear and the anger in my chest.

their mother makes me very sad. learning she was twenty four mid part two was perspective changing. my age! a girl married at fifteen to a man grown, dreaming of education her family could no longer afford, afraid for her children, overwhelmed, lashing out, wanting to forget. no wonder her hands were not as gentle as her daughter longed for. to my parents, suleiman and mirriam, the dedication says, who did their best.

this is a story about home and family, so of course there is love. there are treats brought home for eager children, there is generosity in the darkest moments, there is delight in curiosity and discovery, there are games and laughter in the shadow of soldiers. there is a childhood, there is joy, growing piecemeal through the struggle. reading this i feel grateful to experience this story, and i feel a resentful grief at the conversations i’ve heard over the past year of genocide. at the selfish willingness to ignore the pain occupation has caused ibtisam, caused the families who lived even poorer, more painful lives in this time than she did, caused the people of gaza and palestine and the arab countries surrounding. the dreams of palestinian children are all of our dreams.

greetings, greetings
people in the occupied land-
people who are planted
in your homes like trees-
my heart is with you,
i send you regards of peace

her voice was like a comforting hand, reaching from afar, easing the winter. she was singing about us.