PARADOX
Aysha
Her name translates:
“The one who is living.” Except
she is not
Her two-week-old body
was crushed
under the roof of her bombed house
2:30 in the morning -her grandmother says-
she woke up under the rubble
Aysha and her two-year-old brother
are gone
Aysha does not have a certificate for her birth yet
Nor will she have one
for her death
She was never registered among the living
Aysha, according to the census,
never existed. Except
in her mother’s anguished eyes
who is still looking
for body parts to call
the remains of a child
Aysha
whose name is the one who is living did not live
up to her given name
In muteness, we are all Ayshas
until we speak
Aysha, then,
may count as “ lived”
***Aysha’s Grandmother, Suzan Zourob, was on Democracy Now on Dec 20, 2023***
