Stray Bullet
A collection of eight poems that question notions of mercy and identity formation when children casually die on the streets and under tents. Vices rain upon a society stripped of its being, flayed before international onlookers, and grasping at some distant form of mercy while making every effort to survive. In a land where even prayers are banished from taking root, souls exist like stars without a sky.
Editions: English.
Letter to the Reader
Here, in Gaza, dreams are shattered before they are born.
Here, from the city of death, I write to you to feel life.
From the city of misery, I write to you with hope.
Here, from Gaza, I write to you with the ink of my hand.
Maybe my trace will spread in a heart or even in the streets of the city.
I write to you to leave a trace that makes a fleeting smile.
I write to you so that my fragrance will spread to the sky.
Here from Gaza, where there is war and destruction – I write.
May peace spread throughout the countries of the earth.
Images and Text
Words of Recommendation
Al-Khatib’s “Stray Bullet” is a haunting lyric sequence written in the charged space between love and loss. These poems refuse the separation of private feeling from historical catastrophe. Al-Khatib’s language is raw, dreamlike, and piercing; it moves between tenderness and devastation with remarkable intensity. This zine is the work of a young poet transforming unbearable experience into a lasting literary monument.—Rebecca Ruth Gould
About the Author
Marah Al-Khatib is a Palestinian writer living in Gaza. She has been writing poetry since the beginning of the war as an outlet for her pain during the genocide. She was recently published in Revista Gaceta, where her work was translated into Spanish. Marah has also participated with Arablit in a literary translation program. At this time, Marah was supposed to be in her second year of university, but couldn’t enroll as she only recently finished her high school exams due to the genocide.
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