Bound To Be

By Nada Ali

Just like how the salt water is bound to the sea    

And the Sun is bound to fall, and the stars are bound to be seen 

I am bound to the fig trees to the olive trees to the pomegranate leaves

I am bound to dirt roads that will never be concrete 

I am bound to a village called Shahabi 

And you are bound to an island surrounded by sea 

And that distance between us should’ve never been breached 

Yet, I am here 

So, I might as well be loud, and I might as well be clear 

And I hope you listen to the message carried by the dove through the sea 

My brothers await me 

As we have been playing hide and seek 

They have been missing for more than a decade 

And I have checked under every rock, behind every tree. 

They are nowhere to be seen 

Until I heard they have turned to livestock at the farms on the other side of the sea 

Being bought and salt for the price of milk or tea 

This sense of urgency it’s in the air, it’s in the sea 

It’s in my breath, the words I speak. 

Yet the world seems to have built some type of immunity 

To our deaths. To those thieves to the breach of the laws of humanity when it comes to my brothers and me

So now 

I am bound to be a fighter in the island surrounded by sea 

My sword of a pen and shield of paper, I scream and I weep 

and through my voice I hope you can hear 

All the women and girls who didn’t make it from the mountains line to the shoreline 

Ones who got swallowed beneath the rebel and concrete 

Ones who got called unworthy of life because of their beliefs 

Ones who got stripped of their innocence 

Before knowing what motherhood means

Ones who are still waiting for their fathers’ bones or see their children’s alive in one peace 

Ones who are still in captivity 

But you better believe 

And one day we are bound to be free 

You see 

They changed the course of my destiny 

But you, you will decide 

When the dove returns to the olive tree

By Nada Ali