With the 'war' By Mina Hassan

The Rising Phoenix Review

Nov 30

With the 'war'
for Palestine

In the clearing, the mind clears
and the branches begin
to communicate.

At the ends of the
empty space is a
symphony of entwined ﬁngers

like roots placed the wrong way,
I care not for
mistakes made in the

name of beauty like
words withered for no
reason even if in the softest voice

told like a melody that promises
your next breath, if only
to hear the simmering

of sounds and know
that there is something
stirring inside you like a small

performer tiptoeing onto the grass
plodding bareness with its feet
ﬁlling everything with

its moving. There it is, in the
silent clearing, the part
of us that shudders awake each time

pain has washed us pale, cruel,
each time the world of
people has fallen.

By Mina Hassan

Biography:

Mina Hassan grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. Her chapbook Flying South: a Collection of Winter Ghazals was published by Bottlecap Press in 2022.

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