Poetry: Ashraf AboArafe
How strange it is that they once named you a “League,”
While in this era of agony, I see you only as a “Tear.”
For eight long years, the tragedies have grown immense,
Yet the eyes of the nations have never dried, weeping endlessly.
In proud Gaza, death is ever-present,
And its bleeding strip is blockaded and starved.
And upon the beloved land of Lebanon, an airstrip rages,
Leaving the vibrant cities like terrifying, scattered dust.
In Syria, the wound has grown ancient,
Weeping for its children who starve in exile.
As for Sudan, its people have been torn apart,
The fire of internal strife bringing agony to every home.
In Libya, a wilderness fed by deep divisions,
While the Arabs look on, never mending a single fracture.
In Yemen, the once-happy land weeps for its fate,
As war and hunger have dissolved the entire nation.
In Somalia, time has forgotten its spring,
And Iraq is left patching its wounds to heal what remains.
Where is the intervention to reconcile estranged brothers?
Whether by the Nile or in Benghazi, no voice of yours was heard.
We found nothing from you but a legacy of stale politics:
Denouncing, condemning, and in the end, submitting!
Or praising “others” whenever they step forward
With a solution… only to follow and applaud their deeds.
Where is the resolution to withdraw all our ambassadors
From the head of Zion, as a punishing, painful blow?
Or from New York and Washington, which
Provide the tyrants with cannons and encouragement?
Not once have you stood firm in the international halls,
Taking a resolute stance where dignity is law.
Where is the cooperation with the “Islamic Council,” your partner?
Or have these entities become a severed, broken gathering?
Instead, your double standards in crises are blatant:
The moment the voice of oil calls, you answer all at once!
For the Gulf, there is all the favor and satisfaction,
While the rest of the Arabs march in desperate supplication.
Wealth moves every action in this place,
While the poor are abandoned, torn apart by wolves!
Has the time not come for the constitution to be restructured,
To protect the peoples and achieve what they long for?
And to revive the long-lost pledge of Joint Defense,
Like a “NATO” force, capable of powerful deterrence?
And to merge “Cooperation” into one single entity,
Under the banner of an “Arab-Islamic Union” gathered as one?
To become a shield for the faith and the homeland,
Crushing the Nimrods of this age whenever they strike!
Will a pulse ever return to what faded in the past?
Back when the League possessed a voice that was actually heard?
In the days of Esmat, Moussa, and Al-Arabi, along with
All those who came before in a grand, soaring fortress?
Or will our “Tear” remain an unending river of yesterday,
Pouring woes into the night, sleeplessly?
Just as Netanyahu and Trump wished for us:
To remain shattered… wandering, and utterly torn apart!
