by Shirin Jabalameli
Deadly floods in Gaza have killed four children and left two people missing after torrential rains flooded around 70,000 tents sheltering an estimated 350,000 Palestinians, including 210,000 children. More than 2,000 structurally damaged buildings remain at risk of collapse. —Save the Children, October 9, 2026
When the rain came, the earth pushed back the tents,
and water entered people's dreams without permission.
Water
has the language of innocence;
whatever it touches,
it carries away,
without knowing
what it ought to leave behind.
The water has risen to a child's knees,
yet no one, in the grand halls of the world,
has heard the sound
of a doll getting wet.
Elsewhere,
in warm rooms,
men sit around tables
with white handkerchiefs.
They iron their words,
fold away their “concern,”
put “human rights” in a drawer,
and, with untroubled minds,
vote to carry on with their day.
The world is a chamber of suffocation
whose windows do not open toward Gaza.
And stranger still,
the world has long since stopped coughing;
it merely clears its throat
so that its next sentence about human rights
may be spoken without a stammer.
Tonight,
rain has fallen upon the conscience of the earth.
And God, should He pass through that place,
would have to roll up His trouser legs.
Can you hear it?
The earth has no room left
to bury silence.
Shirin Jabalameli is an Iranian poet, artist, and writer. Her poems have appeared in international journals including Braided Way Magazine (USA), The Lake (UK), The New Verse News (USA), and Poetry Super Highway (USA), where she was selected as Poet of the Week. She is the author of several books, including Crows Rarely Laugh, Apranik, and 101 Moments, 25 Fell from the Frame. Her latest book Beneath the Skin of Tehran was recently published. She was nominated for the 2026 Pushcart Prize for her poem “The Lineage of Birds.” Her short story “The Red Thread” was selected as one of the Top 25 Works Worldwide for the Hannah Arendt Special Edition presented by the International Human Rights Art Movement in Manhattan, New York.Save the Children
