by Jane Edna Mohler
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| A premature Palestinian baby, who was saved from her mother’s womb after she was killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, has died after days in an incubator. Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her, said her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh Jouda. [Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters via Al Jazeera, April 26, 2024 |
You were red and blind as a just-hatched robin
when they cut you from your silent mother.
On the news, your curled form was cradled
by a doctor who needed you to live
even more than me. I hope
your nakedness didn’t shame you.
It made me love you.
They named you Sabreen al-Rouh, prescient,
as you had too much soul for the three pounds
your mother had time to give you.
Her name was Sabreen al-Sakani.
They call her a martyr.
You call her Mama.
At five days old you still knew the cadence
of her heartbeat. You flew to her
while your body rests under the mud of sorrow
that tears have made of Gaza’s dust.
Jane Edna Mohler is a Bucks County Poet Laureate Emeritus (Pennsylvania). Recent publications include Gargoyle, Gyroscope, and One Art. Her collection Broken Umbrellas was published by Kelsay Books. She is the Poetry Editor of the Schuylkill Valley Journal in Philadelphia.
