O Earth (Land Day Poem)
Hug me
And hold me tight
Or devour me
To suffer no more.
I love thee
so take me.
Make me rich.
Make me dirt.
Gone are the days of serenity.
Guns are the words of humanity.
I have no food but a thorn,
No sport but a sigh.
For a soldier needs to feel high.
O, Earth,
If in life I am to hurt
Let my dirt in you give birth.
O, Earth.
January 16, 2012
From If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer (OR Books, 2024), compiled by Yousef M. Aljamal. Copyright © 2024 by Refaat Alareer. Reprinted by permission of the Refaat Alareer estate.
Refaat Alareer
Refaat Alareer was born in Gaza City, the capital of the Gaza governorate in Palestine, on September 23, 1979, during the Israeli occupation of Gaza.
A native of Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood, he received his MA in comparative literature from University College London and completed his PhD in English literature at the Universiti Putra Malaysia.