If Gaza hadn’t been killed, I’d be at my house, waiting to tell my friends how wide the Nile is, what it’s like inside an Egyptian movie theatre, and the best place in Cairo to order Koshari.

If Gaza hadn’t been killed, we’d be in a chalet, playing cards. Ouda would be losing, of course. He’d throw his cards, while Essa laughed at him. We’d awkwardly sing “bring me to life.”

If Gaza hadn’t been killed, I’d be walking with Bassem along Omar AL Mokhtar Street to Al Susi falafel shop. We’d eat two falafel sandwiches with hummus, each. Then to Abo Soad shop for hot Konafa.

If Gaza hadn’t been killed, I’d wake up early. cursing all the alarms in the world, going to work, drinking my morning coffee with the mates and wondering if I will ever not be late to work.

If Gaza hadn’t been killed, I’d sit with Bahaa at Al Baqa Cafe, where we’d repeat our daily jokes about the drones forever passing overhead, as Al Baha Al Abyad kissed the blushing sunset sky.

source: https://therumpus.net/2024/03/22/march-beyond-the-page/

Basman Aldirawi (also published under Basman Derawi) is a physiotherapist who graduated from Al-Azhar University in Gaza in 2010. Inspired by an interest in music, movies, and people with special needs, he has contributed dozens of stories to the online platform We Are Not Numbers, that gives a voice to the victims of Israeli aggression in Gaza; he has also published on many other online platforms. Basman contributed to the anthology Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, 2022 and the Arabic poetry anthology Gaza, the land of poetry, 2021. He is temporarily located in Egypt.