By Samah Sabawi

(When a young Palestinian-American restaurant owner posted a photo of what he believed to be a historic, pre-1948 globe-map of Palestine on his facebook page, he was attacked for posting an ‘offensive’ map that replaced Israel with Palestine.  But there is more to the story then words on a map. As I followed that controversy another story was breaking and was receiving far less attention. A boat packed with Palestinian refugees on the way to seek asylum in Australia was lost at sea.  This poem is dedicated to them and to all the refugees who are lost beyond the borders of humanity!)

 A word on a map

Offends

A reminder of

An original sin

Ethnic cleansing

People wiped off Like letters

Written in the sand

New lines were drawn

And walls were built

On what was once

Their homeland

Misplaced and scattered

Beyond the borders

Of humanity

Exiled into the deep blue sea

Packed…on leaky boats

Seeking asylum

In the far corners of the earth Rejected

Terrorized

Drowning in high seas

Of ambivalence

And political posturing

Endless waves of refugees

Human tragedies

Nameless Faces

Forever Forgotten

Lost between

Unknown spaces

And words

Once written

On a map

– Samah Sabawi is a Palestinian writer currently living in Australia. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.