“Rations,” Hind Jouda

For Hamada Shaqoura

Ten men share one can of beans.
It’s all they will eat this day.
A young girl with starvation
belly and translucent arms.
Her face is etched and sad.
She turns away from the camera.
We won’t meet her again.

A toddler runs alone through ruins, shrieking.
I have no words for this sound.
Horrible to even imagine
what she has seen.

Five days under siege with no food or water.
Emerging, the family is shot dead.
My tongue feels dry.

A father holds his dying child and weeps.
Her wrongly-angled limbs dangle down.

Hamada cooks
in his makeshift
kitchen with huge pots
rows of aluminum trays
and open fires.

He recreates his
Motherland’s food
out of canned and powdered rations
and he speaks with the gift of his
angry eyes.

Only when Hamada feeds the children
does he permit the camera
to capture his sweet and
generous smile.

Hind Jouda was born in Gaza in 1983, where she completed her studies in Educational Technology. She is a poet and writer of stories and essays who has published two poetry collections: Always One Leaves (Mosaic, 2013) and No Sugar in the City (Khata, 2016; Al-Ahliyya, 2017). She has written award-winning documentary film scripts, such as Gaza the Orange (Golden Award at the Cairo Arab Youth Festival) and The Witness’s Sin, shown on the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel. She has also participated in writing plays such as The Homeland Play and Not by the Shoe and has written famous songs such as “O Passersby” (2013) and “Raise Your Head” with Mohammad Assaf (2014). She founded and edited the 28 Magazine for three years before transforming into a cultural salon in Rafah.

Hamada Shaqoura is a Gazan food blogger and activist turned community chef.

Artwork by Ahmed Muhanna.