For the Palestinian child, who stays staring at the white hospital wall after losing his entire family…Â
I crave White
So let me stare
At the blank white wall
That shuts out the world,
Let me hold on to its whiteness
Unblemished
By the redness of blood
Gushing out of a loved one’s mangled corpse
I want White
Unblemished
By the blackness of ashes
Of the charred remains
Of a beloved face
Let me hold on to Whiteness
As my world drowns
In cruel colours
Let me stare into nothingness
As everything of my little world
Shatters all around me
In rubble, debris and shards of broken glass
I crave the whiteness
Of peaceful passage
To Beyond, where all is unsullied
I crave a blankness
To hulk between me
And this terrifying abyss
Of confounding questions
I am tired of colours
That remind me of what was
And never will be again
Just bring me White,
like Refaat’s very white Kite
Soaring in the skies
Like an angel
Bringing back love
To wrap me in
And take me to the place
Where all is white,
Uninterrupted by terrifying colours-
A glowing, radiant White
‘Light Upon Light’
At the end of this long night
