I Long for My Old World – A Poem from Gaza

By Taqwa Ahmed al-Wawi

I long for Gaza, before the war,
For the stories my grandfather used to tell, that warmed our winter nights,
For my grandfather’s house, where peace was in every corner,
For the trees in the garden he watered with his own hands every morning,
And for the second room, his own space, where no one else ever went.

I long for my uncle’s house,
Where my…