By Samah Sabawi 

Don’t tell us a year has passed…

We don’t measure our lives by this calendar

Time has stood still for us so long ago

Punctuated only by loss and grief

And the in between moments of quite reprieve

We don’t count on Christmas, nor Eid for cheer

We don’t fool ourselves with “happy new year”

No occasion is ever taken for granted,

When it comes to tomorrow, there are no certainties

Our yesterday is our today

Time is frozen here

And one calendar year

Will never contain our lives,

Our collective misery,

Our yearning for humanity

Don’t tell us a year has passed

Our clock stopped ticking when justice collapsed

Eclipsed by decades of repression

Hush… don’t speak of time

We have endured the absence of time

We don’t measure our lives by days like you

We measure our lives by the number of embraces

Our worth by a lover’s heartbeat

Our existence by our persistence

So, don’t tell us a year has passed….

– Samah Sabawi is a  writer playwright and poet. She was born in Gaza and is currently residing in Melbourne Australia. She contributed this poem to PalestineChronicle.com.